rock-cut architecture, though intensely laborious with ancient tools and methods, was presumably combined with quarrying the rock for use elsewhere; the huge amounts of stone removed have normally vanished from the site. rock-cut architecture is also said to be cut, hewn, etc., "from the living rock". another term sometimes associated with rock-cut architecture is monolithic architecture, which is rather applied to free-standing structures made of a single piece of material. monolithic architecture is often rock-cut architecture (e.g. ellora kailasanathar temple) but monolithic structures might be also cast of artificial material, e.g. concrete.