Bellum Caves

Bellum Caves in Kurnool district (at the border with Anantapur district), AP, is a very nice discovery. Its one of those places that are pretty interesting and well worth a visit, but are so far out of the way from big cities or major tourist spots, that they don't get the attention. (Another such one that comes to mind is the Lonar Crater Lake in Maharashtra). Bellum is supposedly one of the largest cave formations in Asia. It is quite a maze and easy to get lost in. Its also pretty hot and sweaty inside so prepare for that. There are some fans placed strategically inside the caves to give some relief. Look for the underground pond, called Pataala Ganga.
Other stuff:  There's an unremarkable and wholly unnecessary Buddha statue on the same campus. The APTDC seems to run hotel rooms there, but not sure of the quality and if they are functioning.The other remarkable thing I saw in the area is the preponderance of a local building stone. You see it all around, and there are tonnes of leftover debris from stone cutting. I'm sure there is something of interest in this if you dig a bit.
Getting there : from Bangalore , travel to Anantapur by road and then to Tadipatri, and Bellum is about 45 minutes outside of Tadipatri. You can take a bus to Anantapur and from there, there are very frequent buses to Tadipatri which is about an hour and forty five minutes away. And yet another bus to Bellum caves. So quite a long trek. You can find route information on the APSRTC booking website and phone app. The best idea would be to combine it with other stuff and do a weekend outing to Anantapur. I plan to propose how this could be done in a later post.

See a Google Photo Album of photos from Bellum Caves here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c3HNQK495fRkN6xZ8

See a blog post about the stone mentioned above:
https://despoki.blogspot.com/2018/11/whats-this-stone.html