Hampi in Pictures I

The first of the many temples that dot the landscape

The building on the left was once a mosque, while the one on the right was called the Muhammadan watchtower - evidence that the Hindu rulers and the Mughals did once coexist here, even if tenuously

The watchtower

A break in the wall to the left of the mosque

The view through the wall

The outermost sanctum of the underground Shiva Temple

I was too scared to go in alone so she guided me through the temple into the innermost sanctum; dark, damp and overrun by bats

Little girl outside the temple

Lakshmi Narasimha Temple. Narasimha means half-man, half-lion in Sanskrit

Living in urban India, it's easy to forget how colourful the country really is

Hampi is the site of the mythological kingdom Kishkinda, where the Hindu god Hanuman is said to have been born. The place is still overrun by monkeys today