Hampi

Spread across 25 kms, once the capital of the prosperous kingdom of Vijaynagar, the ruins of Hampi are now the listed under the UNESCO World Heritage sites. In around 1500 A.D. Vijaynagar had 500,000 inhabitants, probably making it the second largest city in the world after Peking-Beijing and twice the size of Paris back then! It was later captured and destroyed by Muslim armies and abandoned ever since.

Hampi — traditionally known as Pampa-kshetra, Kishkindha-kshetra or Bhaskara-kshetra — is derived from Pampa, which is the old name of the Tungabhadra River (also Pampa was Lord Bhrumah's daughter, who was later married to Lord Shiva) on whose southern banks the city is built.[ The name "Hampi" is an anglicized version of the Kannada Hampe (derived from Pampa). Over the years, it has also been referred to as Vijayanagara and Virupakshapura (from Virupaksha, the patron deity of the Vijayanagara rulers).

Virupaksha Temple known as the Pampavathi temple, it is an ancient temple situated in the Hampi Bazaar. It predates the founding of the Vijayanagara empire. The temple has a 160-foot (49 m) high tower at its entrance. Apart from Shiva, the temple complex also contains shrines of the erotica statues Bhuvaneshwari and Pampa.

The above is the Picture of the beautiful stepped tank near the underground Shiva temple in Hampi.

Krishnamachari Santhanam