Hampi has been on my bucket list for a long i.e. ever since I came to Bangalore (that is from last 10 years) but I did not get a chance to visit it until now. The Hampi is well known for its architectural marvels and history which taught us a lot about our past. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site which was again one of the reasons for not missing it. So it was better late than never to visit this place. Hampi is located in the centre of Karnataka and thus it is close to Bangalore being only 350 KMs away from it.
So we started our journey one Friday evening when we have taken the train from Bangalore to Hosapete which is around 8 hour's journey. From Hosapete it is just 13 km to reach Hampi. We have booked our hotels in Hampi itself and thus booked a 2-day auto (tuk-tuk) which will take us to all the places in Hampi. The auto was convenient as we were comfortable in that as well as it was cheaper than the car and other travel options. Being near Bangalore, it is one of the famous weekend gateways from Bangalore and thus we have opted for the same.
It was astonishing to believe that Hampi was the 2nd biggest city in the world in the year 1500 but it was destroyed by the Mughals by the year 1565 and thus ever since that time the ruins of the famous city remain. Now it became a UNESCO heritage site so that we as a traveller can mesmerise the architectural beauty of the whole of Hampi. The Hampi is also very closely connected to the Hindu mythology Ramayana where we have seen so much evidence that they were all real and happened just right before our eyes.
There are too many places to visit in Hampi and thus you can spend 1 week or more exploring almost all the places in Hampi. But since we have only 2 days, we visited some of the few good places in Hampi and there were:
This is the first temple ruins which we have visited, it is the architectural wonder of the Hampi which was spread over a large complex and has numerous halls inside the complex. This temple is of God Vishnu (known as Vittala). The most awesome picturesque as well as astonishing was the stone chariot which was also the flag point of Hampi. To be honest we spent the most amount of time in this place on the first day in this temple itself to just absorb the beauty of the marvellous architecture. Some of the pictures of the compound are as follows.
Inside the Temple
Temple Outside - The whole town
The main temple
The ruins of the temple
The king's Balance
The Stone Chariot
The Stone Chariot
The Stone Chariot
It is a historic bathing place for the King and their queens and thus the name - Queen's Bath.
The Virupaksha Temple is where still the worshipping is going on and again I must say it is the architectural marvel. It is again one of the prominent structures of Hampi where the temple is dedicated to Lord Virupaksha, who is a form of Shiva. It is located on the banks of river Tungabhadra. This is again having a big compound and thus there are quite awesome visuals inside the temple when the Sun was shining right on the temple.
We also found an Elephant named Lakshmi, who takes money from the devotees and give blessings. We also got blessings from the elephant where the elephant keeps its trunk over our heads.
And then there are some other temples as well as architecture which we visited on the first day of the trip and those where
The river Tungabhadra where you can see a whole structure is submerged in the water. We were astonished that how come the structure was inside the water. We could not find the answers as no one can explain that as we have not taken the guide.
To be honest, you will find numerous temples inside the Hampi might be more than 2000 and thus there are temples like these where the names were not so clear.
One more temple premise.
The whole Hampi can be visible from this place, along with the temple Virupaksha.
Some ruins from the top.
This is the Sugriva Gufa where he hides from his brother Bali when Bali wanted to kill Sugriva.
This is again one of the temples, actually a twin temple where again we can see the engravings and other things.
It is inside the temple.
This is the lotus mahal which is again not destroyed and we can see it as a whole two-stored building which resembles the lotus shape. It was designed for the royal ladies to spend quality time with other ladies.
This is the first temple which we have seen when we entered Hampi, and it is a giant statue of Lord Ganesha. It is situated near the Hemakuta hills.
The structure is an Indian Islamic which is mainly used for the royal elephants. The structure is big and thus it can hold big elephants.
It is the Lakshmi Narasimha statue which is the largest statue in Hampi where the Narashimh is sitting on the snag. The original state was destroyed heavily where the goddess Lakshmi was sitting on the lap of the Narasimha.
The stepped tank is usually used for taking a religious bath.
It is again one of the big Shiva Linga statues just adjacent to the Narasimha statue which is surrounded by a pool of water.
These are all the places we covered on the first day of our tour, we were really tired but again in the evening, we also visited some of the local shops to get some items from the famous Hampi Bazaar.
