This former Buddhist monastic compound, high on a hilltop overlooking a vast expanse of forest and paddy fields, is specially noteworthy for its circular rock-cut chaitya-griha shrine. The cave’s domed ceiling is carved with ‘wooden beams’ designed to look like those in a hut. The chaitya-griha has a well-preserved stupa and, like the monks' dwellings that line the same cliff, a gorgeous arched facade also designed to look like wood (note the ‘rafters’).
Also check out the stone 'beds' in the monks’ cells, and the compound’s 60-plus votive stupas. The monastery was active from the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD. Guntupalli is 10km west of Kamavarapukota, which is 35km north of Eluru,
