 The town of Junnar has been an important trading and political center for the last two thousand years, and it was first mentioned by Greco-Roman travellers in the early first millennium AD.The Karla Caves in Karli, near Lonavala, are near the Western Ghats and a major ancient trade route running eastward from the Arabian Sea to the Deccan Plateau.The caves are a complex of ancient Indian Buddhist rock-cut shrines which were developed from the second century BC to the fifth century AD; the oldest of the shrines is believed to date to 160 BC.