Hampi

Yesterday, we visited Mysore, the city renowned for beautiful gardens and palaces. Today, we continue our travel to east central Karnataka to visit Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, extremely popular among visitors from outside the country.

Virupaksha Temple

“Hampi’s ruins are spread over 4,100 hectares (16 sq mi) and it has been described by UNESCO as an “austere, grandiose site” of more than 1,600 surviving remains of the last great Hindu kingdom in South India that includes “forts, riverside features, royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, mandapas, memorial structures, water structures and others.

Hampi continues to be an important religious centre, housing the Virupaksha Temple, an active Adi Shankara-linked monastery and various monuments belonging to the old city. Hampi is situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in the eastern part of central Karnataka near the state border with Andhra Pradesh. It is 376 kilometres (234 mi) from Bangalore and 385 kilometres (239 mi) from Hyderabad.

The toponym Hampi—traditionally known as Pampa-kshetra, Kishkindha-kshetra or Bhaskara-kshetra—is derived from Pampa, another name of goddess Parvati in Hindu theology.

Virupaksha temple and market complex, Krishna temple, market, Narasimha and linga, Achyutaraya temple and market complex, Vitthala temple and market complex, Hemakuta hill monuments, Hazara Rama temple, Kodandarama temple and riverside monuments, Pattabhirama temple complex are some of the important monuments in Hampi.”

For more information on Hampi, please visit the Wiki page: Hampi.