Gateway to the caves — Ellora, Ajanta, and Marathwada's silk
Aurangabad is the gateway to two of the world's greatest cave complexes: the 34 rock-cut Ellora Caves (Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain, carved 600–1000 CE) and the 30 Ajanta Caves whose 2nd-century BC Buddhist frescoes are the oldest surviving painted narrative art in Asia. The city itself was founded by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, whose modest tomb sits in a garden outside town — a deliberate contrast to his great-grandfather Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal. Naan khaliya mutton curry and Himroo silk brocade are the local specialities.
Founded as Khadki in 1610 by Malik Ambar, the Abyssinian prime minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, the city was renamed Aurangabad when Mughal emperor Aurangzeb made it his capital in 1653. It was the Mughal Empire's southern capital for fifty years — home to the Bibi Ka Maqbara, a near-replica of the Taj Mahal built by Aurangzeb's son for his mother. After Mughal decline it passed to the Nizams of Hyderabad and today is a major industrial and heritage tourism hub in Maharashtra.