The site features over 100 caves, all excavated from the Charanandri Hills basalt cliffs, 34 of which are open to the public. These consist of 12 Buddhist caves, 17 Hindu caves and 5 Jain caves, each group representing deities and mythologies prevalent in the first millennium CE, as well as each religion's monasteries.They have been constructed close to each other and illustrate the religious harmony that existed in ancient India. During Hindu dynasties all the Ellora monuments were built such as the Rashtrakuta dynasty, which built part of the Hindu and Buddhist caves, and the Yadava dynasty, which built a number of Jain caves. Funding for the construction of the monuments was provided by royals, traders and the wealthy of the region.
Ellora is the short form of the ancient name Elapura, also called Verul or Elura. The older form of the name was found in ancient references such as the Baroda inscription of 812 CE which mentions "the greatness of this building" and that "this great building was built on a hill by Krishnaraja in Elapura, the inscription building being the temple of Kailasa." In the Indian tradition, each cave is named and has a suffix Guha (Sanskrit), Lena or Leni (Marathi), which means cave.