India abandoned city. Orchha - the lost city of India
Lost cities should not be forgotten when enjoying the beauty and cultural treasures of India.
These cities fell as a result of wars and natural disasters, but still survived to this day.
Let's enjoy the journey and see the surviving art, temples and museums.
Virupaksha temple in Hampi.
The dynasties of princes Harihara and Bukka Raya founded Vijayanagara in 1336. This mighty city was the capital of the empire. The golden years of this Indian region fell on the years 1509-1529. The city was surrounded by hills on three sides, and the Tungabhadra River flowed on the fourth. Like many other powerful empires, the empire eventually fell under the onslaught of the Deccan Sultan in 1565. Agricultural wealth brought great material benefits to the empire through international trade. The ruins of the city now have World Heritage status and surround modern-day Hampi in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
A tree in the courtyard of the Vitthala temple.
Puhar.
The seven-storied building in the photo is now the Sillappathikara Art Gallery. Puhar is a city in the Nagapattinami district, in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu. In ancient times, this city was called the prosperous capital of kings. Located at the mouth of the Kaveri River, the city served as a large trading center, where goods brought from afar were unloaded. The legendary city is mentioned in many songs, in poetry, in the heroic epic. The history of the city is well described in the epics Silapathikaram and Manimekalai. Scientists believe that the cause of the destruction of the city was the tsunami.
Muziris.
Muziris is the Greco-Roman name of an ancient port city located off the coast of Malabar (South India). Excavations in 2004 proved that trade was carried out from this port with Western Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It is believed that the city was destroyed by an earthquake in the 13th century AD.
Lothal.
The ancient city of Lothal, or rather its remains, can be found in the state of Gujatat. Known since 2400 BC, this lost city is one of the most important archaeological sites in India. It was discovered in 1954 and excavated between 1955 and 1960. The city was also a major trading port.
Kalibangan.
Kalibangan is located on the south bank of the Ghaggar district in the state of Rajasthan. Known as the site of the earliest system of plowing an agricultural field (c. 2800 BC). Scientists came to the conclusion that the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 2600 BC, but after that the 2nd stage of the settlement took place, which was unsuccessful due to the gradual and irreversible drying up of the river.
In general, of course, at first I thought that Hampi would be the last city about which I would write a story from this trip, because. I didn't like much there. But now the emotional memories were gone, only the physical memory remained, and it was damn beautiful there. Now just look at the pictures, let's see together :)
We went to Hampi right after Goa. Apparently the contrast of everything - the people and the situation and the weather - was so great that it all knocked me out. Of course, ordinary tourists are very happy to drive there, because it’s really interesting to see the “real India” as well. Something, and I didn’t see the real India there, unfortunately. Neither the city, nor especially the people, look like ordinary Indians. Everywhere everything is seized, everyone is doing business, no mercy for the traveler. At least in the center of the town it is exactly like that, but in the nearby villages, it’s probably better, but we didn’t get there, I’m afraid my foot will never be there again.
What is this small town in the jungle famous for? It’s impossible to get to it humanly, it is located somewhere on the outskirts. Moreover, you can only go into it on purpose, because. by somewhere to go and drop in will not work, tk. the place is not very comfortable.
The first thing that catches your eye when approaching the city is huge stones! They say that these are rocks, but they don’t remind me of them at all, maybe they were once and fell apart ...
There are also rice fields everywhere. Juicy green color, a joy for the eyes!
The truth is not much joy for the body. Because of the heaps of swamps, there are millions of mosquitoes. In fact, definitely no less. Because in our tiny room there were several hundred of them. For the first time in my life, I checked out a mosquito net, set up a wigwam for myself, and, God forbid, even one crack, an attack cannot be avoided. They just dug their noses into this net and tried to reach our blood. We were not in the room at all, even just to sit and relax we went to a nearby chill-out restaurant.
And at night, frogs went hunting and croaked at the top of their lungs, there were also a lot of them, but I liked such natural “music” :)
We stayed three days in Hampi. Already on the first day, I intended to do my feet from there, but tickets had already been bought with a departure from a neighboring city. I had to endure and get used to it, looking ahead I’ll say that I’m used to it.
We settled on the other side of the river. We went back and forth on a boat for 10 rupees.
On the first day, early in the morning, having crossed to the main shore, we saw how an elephant was washed very close by! Naturally, they rushed to where a whole horde of foreigners had already gathered.
It turns out that this is an elephant from a neighboring temple and they scour her here every morning.
Indians take morning baths right there, a couple of meters away.
And the Russians, damn it, don’t want to go into the river if a poodle swims nearby :)
There is a lot of traffic on the main street.
You won’t do everything early in the morning, then you’ll just fry in the sun. I still have a trace of burnt skin on the collar of the T-shirt I was wearing that day. We then decided to have time to get around a lot of things at a time, damn it, it just didn’t become a firebrand.
Elegant characters are already walking near the temple (so that you take pictures of them and pay them money for this) and a brisk trade begins.
Mmmm, there are such delicious bananas, I still haven’t tried anything better. In Russia, there was once an attempt to buy a banana, but a couple of bites were enough to understand that it was a miserable fake. And there is a whole bunch of bananas for 10 rupees, you could easily live on them.
And not only to live, but also to feed others. Cows, for example.
On the photo Lubzik :)
Well, the monkeys, of course, did not refuse :)
This one even abandoned her guard post near the Monkey God Statue for the banana. And we used to have such giants running right along the floor and dragging away our bundles of bananas.
And here is the same checkpoint guarded by these macaques.
I suggested that Hanuman, the god of the monkeys, might have come into existence by mere chance. I once heard, like from the island of Bali, that the chief tough monkey helped win the war. The ancient empire of Vijayanagar, which once stood here, was the Indian center, the Mughals had already occupied the north. The Indians were constantly at war with the Mughals. Therefore, the legend is quite suitable for this story. Only in the legend it was said that the chief of the monkeys gathered the monkey army and went to fight the enemy. I thought that this is a fairy tale. And in fact, the monkey really could play some role. The first thing that came to mind was that some monkey accidentally jumped on the face of the elephant, on which the general of the militant army was sitting, or somewhere else. Because of this, the elephant was scared and made a fuss. The battle is lost, the monkey is held in high esteem :) Why not an option? The most interesting thing happened when I walked around this statue. Her muzzle is a monkey, but the torso is an elephant! Even the butt is big elephant and the tail too. In general, I liked my theory :) Maybe someone knows a smart point of view why exactly a half-monkey is a half-elephant?
Heh heh, we digress.
There are simply dozens of these primates sitting near, many small ones raging, jumping from boulder to boulder. Well, it is not at all surprising that this particular place was described by Kipling, in reality everything is still the same as in the story about Mowgli.
Suddenly, the guards of their god began to make a brutal sound. I didn't even think they could squeal like that. I looked at them with horror, to whom they were reacting, if not to me, it turned out to be a strange dog running past. By the way, there were other dogs nearby, but they seemed to be “their own”.
Dude ancestors of Akela, no less, that's why they deserve respect from monkeys :) These definitely still have fresh genes of wolves.
We decided that it’s enough already to spin around the monkey kingdom, it’s time to move on
We climbed the mountain, from where a wonderful view opened up.
The stones themselves were no less impressive. These really remind me of the statues on Easter Island. As if they were simply wiped by the wind and time.
A few more meters up the rocky paths and here it is - a lost city in the depths of the jungle, hidden among thousands of huge stones.
While climbing the mountain, two shabby, but apparently cunning, old women dragged with us. They overtook us a little and sat down near some ruins. When we approached, they began, of course, to urgently invite us inside the alleged Hanuman temple (in fact, they themselves put the left altar in this hole). And then pay for the entrance grandmother. Damn, the locals here are terribly thought out, which makes them terribly sick.
But the whole city was empty for joy. You don’t have to pay for anything there, the entrance is everywhere, as there are ruins in the jungle, there are unnecessary ones for anyone. That's where I burst into terrible joy and admiration. Such an incredible antiquity, gorgeous fluffy palm trees around, and I was really transported into some kind of fairy tale, because so much has been told about great India, and here it is the heart of all these myths.
Many buildings and temples have been preserved. With all the drawings on the walls, columns and places even something like stone furniture.
Here, for example, is the most beautiful gate standing near the main entrance.
And outside these gates there is a huge platform for landing the plane of the royal procession, not otherwise.
I have already gained experience from humanoid friends and climbed to the top of the colonnade myself :)
And now again the story from Mashka, even a bit of a horror story.
In the dark-dark palace, there is a dark-dark corridor in which there are dark-dark stairs.
I got up on one such staircase, not even seeing it, only feeling it. She began to back away, choosing the angle for the frame and almost fell back somewhere, what depth it was not clear, a black abyss. She stopped at the edge, set her shutter speed for a few seconds, and tried to hold her breath. Something even came out as if it was quite bright, in fact, there was darkness there, at least gouge out the eye.
But from too quiet silence, because I even stopped breathing, I could hear the surrounding sounds. Some creaks, hissing, scratching. Considering that Lubakha was wandering somewhere on the street and I was alone in the whole huge building, my nerves began to fail, I decided that it was a snake. From the dark room, I was trying to fight. But damn interesting. Rather, I thought nearby that it might not be a snake, but bats, and immediately, as a confirmation, I heard an almost ultrasonic squeak. There was only one way to check - to take a picture with a flash, hoping that a herd of Batmans would not rush at me. Again I wandered into the darkness and got ready to quickly take a picture and run :)
And then my theory was confirmed.
I know that the photo is not very attractive, but I wanted to tell =)
The flash, by the way, did not wake them up. I even invited Lyuba to arrange a photo session and she managed to take a few shots of a pair of mice “blindly” close up.
After wandering among the old choruses of Indian rulers, we went aimlessly. After a while, we came to the same river that we cross every morning, only downstream. Well, here again, washing and washing.
The fishermen first kill the fish by hitting the water with a stick, and then spread the nets.
A little further on, the boys offered to take us a couple of meters away on the same “plate”, but they wanted a lot of hundreds of rupees, we sent them away.
By this time, we were so baked with a skull that we could hardly crawl and thought about what would be the shortest way to get back to the center.
Having looked at these pebbles with modern art for the last time, they wanted to turn back…
But then, on almost plasticine stones, we met white people and said that we forgot to see the most interesting thing, but it seemed to be not far ahead. "Yo-mine!" - I thought, but there was nothing to do, it was impossible to leave it for another day, because. There is more to see in Hampi.
White people went ahead of us, and we remained in thought and with dreams of at least a Panama hat. Soon the goats galloped merrily over the stones.
Well, since even the goats are going in that direction, then it’s okay, we’ll trample too.
We went out to some strange building, sort of like a stupa at the top.
There the Indians washed their children. And it was only the kids, they themselves did not climb into the water. Some local photographers gathered with interesting ancient technique (no, not made of stone :)). So we decided that there was some kind of event. There were even even thoughts that this type of baptism could be some kind of rite.
Grandmother sat with her youngest granddaughter on a nearby pebble and watched with pleasure the rest of the children in the water procedures.
Then we got to the very interesting thing that the white people promised us, but nothing impressed us there. I didn’t understand the difference between that free empty zone where you walk as much as you like on your own and this place where the main temples are closed, and the entrance costs 250 rupees. Where heaps of annoying merchants scurry about and small children dressed as gods, in general, a place for tourists. I didn’t get high, there are no photos from there.
On the way back, we saw a stone that the locals cut to build something. The technology is simple: they make holes in a circle with some kind of stake, the stone then splits into two parts. Then one of the parts is again perforated and so on.
There are many such "sawn" stones in Hampi. Most likely, materials are even supplied to neighboring cities, if not even farther than not bad business.
The next day we wanted to be in time for two different places. One is in the direction of the famous elephants, and the second is in a completely different direction, but no less famous Hanuman Temple.
Since it is necessary to move to Mount Hanuman at sunset, at sunrise we went to the elephants. And then they started to trick us again. Firstly, the rickshaw asked for a maniac sum - 50 rupees for a couple of kilometers. They broke down, agreed, after making sure that for two. All the way, he soared our brains that it would be better for 300 rupees, he will show and tell everything. Type of excursion for 4 hours. We explain to him that for these 4 hours we will only be spinning around one ruin, because. we walk for a long time and generally want to see everything ourselves, so that someone does not stand above my soul. No, he's still pushing his fucking tour. We arrived at the place, thanked, said that the tour was not needed, but we didn’t have money for him without change, so I gave him a hundred rupees and wait ... He put it in his pocket satisfied and didn’t even itch to take something else there. I ask actually where is 50 rupees. And he says that this was the price for one person. Since by this time I had already figured out Humpy and this garbage got me in order, I said to the rickshaw that it didn’t matter, they agreed otherwise, because I clarified, and he confirmed. Let him go through the forest, I won’t get out of his cart, we’ll wait at least until the evening, I’m in no hurry, and he will miss other customers.
The nasty little man could not stand it after a few minutes and gave us the change, sending us goodbye, and we thanked him in the same way.
My mood deteriorated and I walked around the antiquities upset.
Nevertheless, it was surprising that Mughal buildings stood so close to the Indian empire.
We climbed up to this tower. There was a heavy padlock on the grate, but it wasn't locked. We opened the door and went up the old steps. All the walls, as usual, are covered with tourists who wanted to put their name as a vandal in history.
The Muslims are getting closer than I thought. They literally lived next door.
And then another ugly side of Hampi's greed opened up. Builders are working everywhere.
Do you think they restore ancient buildings or restore something? No, they build walls. A couple more years and you won't see anything in Hampi for free.
If now it’s still possible to just take a walk somewhere, breathe in the atmosphere of real events of the past and feel the history, then very soon visitors will walk like in a museum with dinosaur skeletons. Like it was, but it is impossible to imagine.
250 rupees is the entrance to EVERY fenced area. You can count dozens of them there, wouldn't it be fat, huh? In general, here I again strengthened my point of view about the commercialism and nastiness of the city.
Harm to all prohibitions brazenly climbed over the fence, pushing past the barbed wire. There was a green meadow and a beautiful temple. We entered through a side door. We left through the main entrance, the guards did not torture us. It's beautiful, but the pictures are boring and lifeless.
It's better to lay out the artist, who was very serious and focused on his work.
It was not a seller of paintings, but a student. Apparently they came to practice as a group, because. there were a lot of people sitting there and everyone was drawing something in watercolor.
By the way, in his picture you can just see a Hindu temple, into which we made our way without asking. In reality, it's even better.
Then we passed by some kind of stele, stone baths-pools of the former rulers, some other ruins, and by itself the road led us to the elephants. Finally! They look so pretty in the pictures! But the guard blocked the road, demanding a ticket. It’s so strange, it would be nice if there were some gates, otherwise the road to these elephants goes on and on. No cash register, no barriers. What kind of ticket we ask, there was not even a ticket office. He pointed in the opposite direction from where we had come, along the wall for almost half a kilometer. By this time, more tourists with a child and an Indian couple came up, they were also deployed. Taking advantage of the moment, I took a picture of elephants, although the angle is dumb, but they kind of looked at them with one eye.
As expected, the ticket at the box office once again cost 250 rupees. We turned around and went from there, the Indians at that time shouted to us that we had to buy tickets here, and we answered something like choke, take it yourself for such a price. As I understand it, only rickshaws bring to this checkout, if you go by yourself, then it turns out in completely different ways. Not because it is shorter there, it is more interesting there, you can see what is not yet closed. If you go along this road, you see only dry grass and walls growing on the sides, while their height is not large, but this is not for long.
For example, the already finished wall, along which we walked to the cash desks of the elephants, was about three meters, only in a few places you could jump up and see the most boring well-groomed clearings with a couple of ruins.
He wanted to give us a ride from there by rickshaw, for a thousand rupees. Was it hard to resist spitting in his face? No, it's not difficult. By this time, I had already scored, I knew that it would be so, so I tuned in to walk in the heat of 40 degrees in direct sun, on foot. The main thing for us was to reach the road, and there it is already possible to catch a bus from Hospet that they are passing by.
How long is it short, but we made it to the very road, near which there were still buildings that looked very decent, but with a free entrance. Lyubka galloped off to take pictures of the next walls, but I remained standing at the entrance, because I was already dying from boredom and there was no mood. At the entrance, the Goans also froze, also deliberating whether to go or not to watch the same thing again. You can't confuse such an outfit with anything :)
Of course, we went along the road, there was no point in waiting for the bus on the spot. It will go, it will go, no, it won't.
Soon a rickshaw full of Indians stopped and offered to take us for 10 rupees from the nose. This is not a spoiled real rickshaw, he probably already raised the price for a white man, but not hundreds of times!
Needless to say, after all the "adventures" I arrived at the guesthouse angry and without mood. You can’t rest in the room, there are hundreds of mosquitoes rushing and trying to torment you (the photo is off topic, but I like it).
The only salvation was our chill-out restaurant, it's just some kind of paradise. By evening, everyone from the neighborhood flocked to it, because you can’t think of a more ideal place. You sit, even almost lie down, covered in pillows at low tables. Relaxing music is playing, Shiva and Ram are on the walls, subdued light, delicious momo ... In general, by sunset, I relaxed, got good and was ready to storm Mount Hanuman :)
At 5 p.m. a rickshaw was supposed to drive up, with whom we agreed in the morning that he would take us for 300 rupees, wait and bring us. The uncle was different, he left a normal impression, but it was even before they met with harmful rickshaws. Exactly at 17.00 he was already waiting for us. We happily loaded into his cart and set off.
Mount Hanuman was on our shore, so there was no need to swim anywhere. It turns out that the village here was much more than it seemed initially. I don’t know if this also applies to Hampi or not, but here is a simple village Indian life and simple, not arrogant people. The impression remains good.
You drive, and along the banana thickets and rice fields, in the distance these huge stones, beauties!
Already climbed a bit.
The rickshaw remained below, agreed that at 18.30 we would go down.
At the top of the mountain stands the temple of Hanuman, the monkey god.
The monkeys here are not as black-faced as we saw at the beginning near the ruins of the old city.
Those were treated only by us. And this brings food to everyone who is not lazy. They are stuck here. Bananas are put in the mouth for future use, look how much this fat belly stuffed in the cheek :)
In the pre-sunset rays, flags flutter on the temple.
And now the action begins, for the sake of which everyone climbed here - sunset.
Everyone comfortably settled down on the stones warmed up during the day and relaxed.
Here I was again strained by one Indian, chatting at the top of his voice on the phone. I sort of endured it, but a whole crowd of young Indians came and made a hubbub, like at a train station. I couldn’t stand it anymore, they don’t see how everyone here relaxed, why it was necessary to arrange a bazaar, but they didn’t even care about the sunset. I hit the stone with my hand so that all my Indian bracelets jingled and shouted “shut up!”. Some Russian chuckled merrily, the rest of the tourists were also delighted, apparently their religion did not allow them to say anything, I alone was an impudent goat on this holy mountain. The Indians, however, understood, at first they left somewhere and their chatter was almost inaudible, then they completely disappeared.
Finally, the long-awaited silent calm has begun, in our frenzied world one wants to stop at least for a minute, it was here for several minutes, an indescribable luxury.
The sun was slowly sinking down, not at all in a hurry, as it usually happens at sea, some kind of pleasant music was flying over the whole world, clearly dedicated to Hanuman, which was turned on in the temple, lights were lit one after another in the village and the last low rays illuminated the rice fields and banana groves. It was worth coming here for that, yes.
After sunset, everyone went down together. Black-faced monkeys immodestly sat on the stones :)
I met this one. I took it gently to shake her paw. At this time, Russian aunts of advanced age descended, obviously having come with a guided tour from Goa. The guide girl reproached me that it was impossible to do this, these are wild animals, they will eat me, and in general, once I touched the infection, then I won’t manage. Damn it, fuck you with your fucking theory! I first looked the monkey in the eyes, she also looked at me intently, at first I just extended my hand without touching it, she didn’t remove her paw, then carefully took her paw and seemed to say hello, shaking her hand up and down, she held her paw for a few more seconds , and then carefully took it out of my handshakes. All. I didn’t touch her anymore, we understood each other more than well. You can read the eyes and gestures of not only people. If I had lived according to the theory of these tourists, I would not have gone anywhere in life, dying from correctness and boredom.
But the story is not over yet! I know that I got it with my bikes, but, damn it, when we went downstairs, the rickshaws were not found. He left! We are not late, no. True, we haven’t paid him money yet, in the end we agreed. We decided to wait a bit. Then one dude with a greasy face drove up, said that his brother would take us for free. It got me, I know yours for free, for 10 rupees you will hang yourself. They replied that we would not go anywhere with him. Then he began to add a second one, said that he was a friend of that one and would take us and there was no need to pay, and then unpleasant morning memories of a rickshaw surfaced in me. I nervously got up and told everyone to get out, and we would go on foot. Yes, damn it, through all the rice fields, banana groves and the old village, when it was already dark. As soon as we started, a third drove up and said that he was his younger brother and would take us. The “younger brother” almost got a cap and even his calls to our rickshaw did not convince us.
We walked for maybe 10 minutes, when we met our rickshaw, who was in a hurry in this direction, he was informed by other rickshaws about our act. It is unlikely that he came to save the poor lost lambs in the wild jungle, but he forgot to remove the money from the lambs, you can’t miss them. We walked defiantly for a few more minutes without getting into his wreck. He ran after us, persuading us. We replied that since he threw it, we pay him not 300, but 200 rupees. He broke down, but agreed, because at least something. He ran after his tarantai and rolled up to us. We loaded and went angry. All the way to the village, he still processed us on the account of 300 rupees, but then ... If it seemed to you that before that I was angry, nooo, I was just in a bad mood, but then I went berserk. I didn't let this rickshaw get a word in, yelled so loud that everyone we passed could hear it, lashed out at this already unfortunate man for everyone who ever deceived me in India, even for those who did it back in my previous trip. In general, the uncle got his 200 rupees without a peep. Will no longer throw pale faces and violate agreements. And then you’re smart-assed, they think we’ll get scared and sit down at least to someone at least for how much just to get there! Wrong ones were attacked, urrrooody.
In general, like this again, not very fun, I finished my story about Hampi, but really everything was just like that according to my impressions. At first, I could not even recall this place without disgust. Now nothing has been forgotten, but I no longer take it to heart, it was and was, but it has passed.
The place is generally beautiful and wonderful, it’s great to rent a scooter there and drive everything on your own. Bicycles are very cheap, and modern comfortable European ones, and not Indian ones with a steering wheel at the pedals. You just have to keep up, soon everything will be built up with walls and there will be nothing left for the ordinary traveler. They are mainly guided by the price range for money tourists from Goa. It is a pity that such a legacy will be distorted and turned into something similar to what the Egyptian authorities did with the pyramids :(
# Guide to India 3 for booking any hotel with a discount on Booking.com. It works like a cashback - the money is returned to the card after leaving the hotel.
Vijayanagara - the most famous abandoned, located near the city of Bellary. It was the capital of the Vijayanagar Empire from 1336 until 1565. It was captured and destroyed by Islamic sultans and gradually overgrown with jungle. The village is located among its ruins.
Khajuraho - this one was built from the 9th to the 12th century AD. (At that time, the Chandela dynasty ruled). A huge complex, which consisted of the most beautiful temples and was not completely preserved. Once upon a time, 85 temples were located on the territory of Khajuraho. Religious buildings were made a religious capital. Only twenty-five architectural monuments have survived to this day, the rest are in ruins. The city was abandoned in the thirteenth century and accidentally discovered in 1838. 
Fatihpur Sikri, its ancient part, is a real city of monkeys. In the 16th century, the city was the capital of the Mughal Empire. Fatihpur Sikri was a most beautiful city with a large number of architectural monuments and a huge population, but the mistake of the builders was fatal. When the construction was completed, the residents began to have problems with water. And gradually they left it, and after some time the city became a ghost, and it was inhabited by monkeys.
The city of Pataliputra was the capital and cultural center of the Shugun, Gupta, Mauryan, and Nand empires. During the reign of the Guptas, the city fell into disrepair and surrendered to the mercy of the jungle. 
At present, the city of Patna stands here, more than 1.5 million inhabitants live in it. Everyone can visit the ruins, which are located on the outskirts, the Agam Kuan well, which is considered to be bottomless, and Kamhrar of the Ashoka era.
Mandu or Shadiabad is another ancient Indian city and it stood until the middle of the sixteenth century, like many other cities in India, this city fell into disrepair, its inhabitants left it, and gradually the city surrendered to the mercy of the jungle. Well-preserved fortresses, mausoleums and palaces of Shadiabad attract lovers of antiquities and tourists to these places. It makes a truly lasting impression.
A sensational discovery was made by a group of archaeologists in Cambodia - a lost city with a thousand-year history was discovered in the impenetrable jungle, the search for which was conducted for more than a dozen years. Modern technology came to the aid of scientists: the area was scanned from the air with a special device.
Archaeologists can't find the words! The ancient city that disappeared into the wilds of the rainforest was previously known only from legends. Mahendraparvata, or "Mountain of the great god Indra", - this name has been conveyed to this day by an inscription on one of the religious buildings 40 kilometers from this place.
"This is definitely the ruins of the temple. Only the sacred buildings were made of stone. This is the pedestal on which the statue of the temple stood. All this was in the center of the city," says expedition leader Damian Evans.
After the first stone foundation, find follows find. Mysterious sanctuaries that stood for centuries, skillful stone carving, a developed network of roads, many canals, dams and ponds to supply water to residents and their crops.
"If you look at the vegetation around me, it will resemble a rice field. But if you look at the perspective, this is nothing but the territory of the temple. Nobody knew about its existence for hundreds of years. Everything that is inside has been there for a thousand years ago," says Damian Evans.
Scientists call the date of foundation of Mahendraparvata the 802nd year of your era. The year the Khmer Empire was founded. It was in these places, as the legend says, that its first ruler received a blessing for the kingdom. For a long time, the city of Angkorwat was considered the capital of his state; in its heyday, about a million people lived in it. Scientists are sure that now he will definitely share his fame with Mahendraparvata.
"Interestingly, the found city is exactly the same as Angkor. But we managed to establish that it was built much earlier than it, by about 350 years. And, apparently, we approached its outskirts. So far we have been able to map the city approximately 30 square kilometers, and that's not all," says archaeologist Jean-Baptiste Chevans.
The discovery of the international expedition of Damian Evans and Jean-Baptiste Chevans can be compared with the discovery of the legendary Troy. True, in this case, it could not have done without the help of modern technology. The search area was explored from the air for a whole week. A three-dimensional plan of the sacred mountain was compiled by archaeologists with a laser scanner - lidar. He also discovered the ruins of 30 temples.
“Before, it would have taken us more than one year to map all this. Now we need to describe everything we saw and continue working, since the city turned out to be much larger than we expected,” says Damina Evans.
Scientists have been going to Mahendraparvata for a long 13 years, overcoming kilometers of tropical jungle, swamps and the legacy of a bygone era - minefields left over from a long civil war. The reasons for the decline and desolation of the city are allegedly called uncontrolled deforestation, because of which the canals began to dry up and the productivity of the fields fell.
While enjoying the amazing nature and cultural richness of India, one should not forget about the lost cities. Despite the fact that these cities fell as a result of wars and natural disasters, their majesty has survived to this day, thanks to the surviving temples, museums and galleries in which the surviving art objects are presented. Let's enjoy time travel together.
The dynasties of princes Harihara and Bukka Raya founded Vijayanagara in 1336. This mighty city was the capital of the empire. The golden years of this Indian region fell on the years 1509-1529. The city was surrounded by hills on three sides, and the Tungabhadra River flowed on the fourth. Like many other powerful empires, the empire eventually fell under the onslaught of the Deccan Sultan in 1565. Agricultural wealth brought great material benefits to the empire through international trade. The ruins of the city now have World Heritage status and surround modern-day Hampi in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Tree in the courtyard of the Vitthala temple:
Puhar
The seven-storied building in the photo is now the Sillappathikara Art Gallery. Puhar is a city in the Nagapattinami district, in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu. In ancient times, this city was called the prosperous capital of kings. Located at the mouth of the Kaveri River, the city served as a large trading center, where goods brought from afar were unloaded. The legendary city is mentioned in many songs, in poetry, in the heroic epic. The history of the city is well described in the epics Silapathikaram and Manimekalai. Scientists believe that the cause of the destruction of the city was the tsunami.
Muziris
Muziris is the Greco-Roman name of an ancient port city located off the coast of Malabar (South India). Excavations in 2004 proved that trade was carried out from this port with Western Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It is believed that the city was destroyed by an earthquake in the 13th century AD.
Lothal
The ancient city of Lothal, or rather its remains, can be found in the state of Gujatat. Known since 2400 BC, this lost city is one of the most important archaeological sites in India. It was discovered in 1954 and excavated between 1955 and 1960. The city was also a major trading port.
Kalibangan
Kalibangan is located on the south bank of the Ghaggar district of Rajasthan. Known as the site of the earliest system of plowing an agricultural field (c. 2800 BC). Scientists came to the conclusion that the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 2600 BC, but after that the 2nd stage of the settlement took place, which was unsuccessful due to the gradual and irreversible drying up of the river.
Surcotada
Surkotada is located in Kutch district, Gujarat. The ancient burial mound is surrounded by sandy hills and red soil, giving the whole area a reddish-brown color. The Lost City was discovered in 1964. Among the attractions of India, these lost cities are far from the last place.
Pattadakal. Pattadakal Temple
Pattadakal is a city located on the banks of the Malaprabha River in the northern state of Karnataka. The group of ten monuments from the 8th century AD includes majestic temples, a monolithic stone pillar and a Jain sanctuary.
