Rock Cut

These rock-cut temples at Ellora and Ajanta are marvels of construction that immerse us in India's most enduring contributions to global civilization. ❋ Michael FitzGerald (2011)

This series of paintings takes as its title a scrawl of graffiti on a rock-cut along the Trans Canada Highway near Sudbury. ❋ The Nag (2009)

Hatshepsut, a woman of royal blood, ruled as pharaoh during this period, as did Tutankhamun and the long-lived Rameses the Great, famous for the colossal rock-cut statues he built at Abu Simbel as well as his war against the Hittites of Asia Minor. ❋ Philip Freeman (2011)

Whatever you've seen or heard about Petra, nothing really prepares you for the immense size of the city -- around four square miles, mostly not excavated yet -- and the 800 structures there, from rock-cut tombs to churches, temples and baths to a 3,000-seat amphitheater. ❋ Bob Schulman (2011)

Perhaps even more than for these rock-cut structures, Ajanta is admired for its paintings, probably the finest extant series of ancient paintings anywhere in the world. ❋ Michael FitzGerald (2011)

An 'ossuary' is a stone box in which bones previously laid out in rock-cut tombs, such as those in the Gospels, were placed after they were retrieved by relatives or followers. ❋ Robert Eisenman (2011)

Built into the face of the brown earthen wall, not unlike the famous rock-cut buildings at Petra in Jordan, was a beautiful arched stone doorway. ❋ MATTHEW REILLY (2010)

Visitors will also be able to climb down the steep shafts of the rock-cut tombs to the deeply buried burial chambers of the city's necropolis. ❋ Unknown (2010)

The first-century tombs found beneath it suggest the site was more like a "graveyard" of rock-cut tombs than an isolated individual one. ❋ James F. McGrath (2010)

Komarnitsky provides a cogent case for the possibility that Jesus may have been buried in a trench grave rather than a rock-cut tomb, mentioning in this context a reference in the Secret Book of James to Jesus having been buried "in the sand." ❋ James F. McGrath (2010)

The possibility that Jesus was not buried in a rock-cut tomb faces the hurdle that the narrative accounts in the Gospels connect the belief that Jesus was "raised on the third day" to the discovery of the empty tomb. ❋ James F. McGrath (2010)

Egyptians held a deep belief in the afterlife, and preserved their bodies and possessions for use after death, placing them in elaborate pyramids, mastabas, and rock-cut tombs. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The landscape is dotted with innumerable rock-cut Roman tombs (left) like this one, as far as the eye can see. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Then the "houses" were moved into small rock-cut tombs on the cliff face, and then more elaborate tombs began to be built in the shape of temples. ❋ Walter Jon Williams (2009)