Anjeyanandri hill

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This morning we continued site seeing in Hampi. At the Virupasha temple monkeys are everywhere and one jumped on Ginny's back. There is also a temple elephant here. An unusual feature of this temple is that the architect included a window designed as a pin hole camera. An inverted image of the gopuram is clearly visible during daylight hours. This temple also includes small sections of the sanctum sanctorum dating back to C6 to C8. This is the same style of architecture we will see next in Badami. Although this looks black it is green chlorite stone.

We continued to the royal temple. The light was good for photographing the outside wall carved with a row of elephants at the bottom, then horses, infantrymen, dancing girls, and a procession. Inside there are scenes from the Ramayana. Surrounding the temple are the ruins of royal palaces.Conservation work is continuing. There are sections that can be easily identified such as the platform on which the king mounted elephants and a bathing area. The royal enclosure, a little further along the roadhas an impressive aqueduct and a royal pond with an attractive geometric design. We climbed up on top of the royal stage for a panorama over the surrounding area. The final visit before lunch (again at the mango tree) was to the queen's bath.

After lunch we enjoyed the air conditioning in the car on the drive to Arungundi hill. The drive included a very attractive section through rice paddy fields with Hampi boulder hills in the background. There were birds in the paddy fields helping the farmers by eating the insects? The small egrets were most prolific. There were also ibis feeding. Unfortunately a large (dead) bat was visible on a power line? On a different power line was a black and white kingfisher and bee eater birds.

We climbed the 650 steps up the hill to the view point and temple at the top. The view included the river and we could see the boat crossing to our cottages. We could also see the main Hampi temples we had visited. In the other direction there was a view over rice paddy fields and the boulders.

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Comments

[Diana Gower]

Stone steps
650 steps... That's about the same as the number to climb to reach the top of Duram Cathedral tower.