Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
“World heritage Ajanta Caves and Ellora Caves are Incredible. They are a treasure trove of India. The stone art in Ellora Caves, especially the rock-cut monolithic Kailas Temple, and the narration of Jataka tales through beautiful paintings at Ajanta Caves made me speechless. The ancient civilisation with monolithic structures is an area of my interest,” said Elizabeth Montgomery (66), the 77th descendant of Alexander - The Great.
Elizabeth and her husband Andrew Leskowitz after spending a couple of days left the historic city on Thursday afternoon. They stay in Hawaii (the United States). Elizabeth is a pathologist, while a software engineer Andrew is enjoying his superannuation life.
During a brief interaction with media persons, Andrew (69) said, “Elizabeth lastly visited India in 1982. It was her maiden visit to the historic city. We were curious to see the union of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism in Ellora and Buddhist art at Ajanta Caves. We spend hours at both the caves complexes."
" I researched books and records (online and offline) for two long years to find the lineage and connect the dots leading to Alexander - The Great. She feels honoured and nothing beyond it,” claimed Andrew underlining that he is also maintaining coin collections of different tenures in the lineage.
President of Aurangabad Tourism Development Foundation (ATDF) Jaswant Singh and guide Sandeep Gaikwad were also present during the interaction.
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Save Tigers - Boost Tourism
Elizabeth is associated with the Anti-Poaching Society in Zimbabwe. “ We landed in India on March 2. We had been to Bandhavgarh National Park and Kanha National Park (in Madhya Pradesh) and after flying from the city to Delhi, we will be visiting Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand. We came to know about Tiger Reserves in Maharashtra and will visit them for sure in future,” stressed Elizabeth and Andrew.
“ Save Tigers as it will help attract domestic and international tourists. Stringent action should be taken against poachers to protect the declining population of tigers in India and any country. People spend huge money to see the mobility of wildlife animals especially elephants and tigers in Africa. A group has to shell out 1500 US dollars just to see guerrillas for one hour in Africa,” pointed out Elizabeth.