Orchha is the lost city of India. Lost Cities of India (11 photos) Lost City Z

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 not successful 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 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 EACH 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 you 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 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, as it were, greeted, 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 that rickshaw get a word in, yelled so loud that everyone we passed could hear, lashed out at this already unfortunate man for everyone who ever cheated on 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.

While the Taj Mahal shines with majestic marble brilliance, the Meenakshi Amman temple is full of bright colors. It is located in the South East Indian state of Tamil Nadu in the city of Madurai, which is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world, having been functioning for more than two thousand years.

Photo: Pabloneco on Flickr

Photo: Bryce Edwards on Flickr

It is based on something extraordinary - the temple of the Hindu goddess Parvati, the wife of the god Shiva. The entire temple complex is guarded by towers known as gopuras. The tallest of these is the south tower, which was erected in 1559 and is over 170 feet high. And the eastern tower, founded in 1216, is considered the oldest, that is, it was built several centuries before Columbus went to discover distant lands.

Jantar Mantar

Photo: Guy Incognito on Flickr

The remarkable complex of buildings is similar to the scenery for a planet far from Earth from a sci-fi blockbuster. But in fact, these are instruments developed and used in Jaipur to observe celestial bodies. They were built by order of the Maharaja in the first decades of the 18th century and are still in use today.

Photo: McKay Savage on Flickr

Photo: Philip Cope on Flickr

Jai Singh II was born in 1688 and became Maharaja at the age of eleven, but inherited a kingdom that was on the verge of impoverishment. The kingdom of Amber (later Jaipur) was in a desperate situation, the cavalry numbered less than a thousand people. But on his thirtieth birthday, the ruler built Jantar-Mantar.

Kumbhalgarh - Great Indian Wall

It is the second largest continuous wall on our planet. Some call it by the name of the fort it surrounds - Kumbalgarh, and others - the Great Wall of China of India. Surprisingly, such an outstanding building is little known outside of its region.

Photo: Lamentables on Flickr

Photo: Beth on Flickr

The wall stretches for 36 kilometers. In many images, you can mistake it for the Great Wall of China. However, there were many centuries and cultural differences between them. Work on the creation of Kumbhalgarh did not begin until 1443 - just fifty years before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to make amazing discoveries on its other side.

Temple of Karni Mata

Photo: alschim on Flickr

From the outside, the Hindu temple of Karni Mata, located in the small town of Deshnok in the Indian province of Rajasthan, looks just like any other. But the beautifully and exquisitely decorated shrine, with a constant stream of worshipers, holds a surprise for unsuspecting visitors. The temple is inhabited by thousands of rats.

Photo: owenstache on Flickr

Photo: micbaun on Flickr

Rodents are not random inhabitants of the temple. Parishioners take special care of food for rats, as they are here in memory of the legendary woman - Karni Mata.

Jodhpur - the blue city of India

Photo: bodoluy on Flickr

Travelers traverse the arid landscapes of the Thar Desert in the Indian state of Rajasthan to reach this place. It seems that here the sky fell to the ground and everything became one color - blue. Jodhpur stretches before you like blue treasures in the middle of the desert.

Photo: Christopher Walker on Flickr

Photo: Il Fatto on Flickr

According to one version, the population of the Blue City paints their houses in various shades of blue due to the caste system prevailing in India. Brahmins belong to the highest Indian caste, and the blue color distinguishes their dwellings from other people.

Leh Palace

Photo: watchsmart on Flickr

In the early years of the seventeenth century, the King of the Kingdom of Ladakh, Senge Namgyal, ordered the construction of this huge palace. It is located on the top of the Himalayas in the city of Leh, currently the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The building served as the home of a dynasty of rulers until they were overthrown and expelled in 1834. Since then, the lofty Lekh Palace has been abandoned. Nevertheless, it rises majestically in this region of India, which is often called Little Tibet.

Photo: teseum on Flickr

Photo: Matt Werner on Flickr

Supposedly it was modeled after the more famous Potala Palace in neighboring Tibet, which served as the residence of the Dalai Lama until 1959, when he left the country. The Leh Palace is smaller than the Potala Palace, but its nine-story structure is still impressive. The upper floors were occupied by King Namgyal, his family and crowds of courtiers. The lower floors housed servants, storage rooms and stables.

Living bridges of Meghalaya

Photo: Ashwin Mudigonda on Flickr

Our understanding of India, with its population of more than a billion people, is often limited by statistics. However, there are places in this subcontinent that still remain virtually inaccessible. The state of Meghalaya in the northeast of the country is replete with subtropical forests. To get around in this area, the locals resorted to an ingenious form of natural engineering - living root bridges.

Photo: Rajkumar1220 on Flickr

Photo: ARshiya Bose on Flickr

With every rain, fording through the rivers becomes very dangerous, and this is one of the wettest places on the planet. Steady rainfall combined with rugged terrain, steep slopes and dense deciduous forests turn many areas of Meghalaya into an impenetrable jungle. But the inventive and resourceful local population has created a unique system of natural suspension bridges.

Ajanta caves

Photo: Ashok66 on Flickr

Two thousand two hundred years ago, work began on an extensive series of cave monuments in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Over the course of hundreds of years, thirty-one monuments were carved out of the rocks. Around 1000 AD, the monks gradually abandoned the cave complex and it fell into disrepair. The overgrown dense jungle hid the caves from human eyes.

The state of Karnataka is located in close proximity to one of the most famous recreation areas in India - the islands of Goa. Tourists, having had enough of the delights of a beach holiday, go to see the nearby sights, explore the ancient cities. They cannot ignore one of the major cities of Gokarnu.

Mysterious ancient cities of India

In the surrounding area there are a lot of interesting places hidden from the eyes of the uninitiated. Many lie in ruins, but one place does not seem to have been so much disturbed by time. This is one of the main attractions of India - the green fort Mirjan. India is rich in such amazing places, here and there hiding in the dense thickets of the jungle.

Only 22 kilometers separate the center of civilization with cafes, restaurants, clubs and hotels from an abandoned deserted fort. It is quite large, in which life has been seething for a very long time, but now only rare tourists visit it. For a person not accustomed to the special nature of India, the very journey to these places with an abundance of vegetation and humid, saturated with aromas air is amazing. In a place free from trees, there is a majestic fortress, all covered with fine moss, which creates a feeling of an unusual color scheme.

The green fort Mirjan was built in the 16th century by the Portuguese. He performed a very important function. Expensive spices from India to Europe were transported in large quantities along the nearby river, and the task of the fort was to protect the cargo. When the need for this disappeared, they began to gradually forget about the fortress. Such ancient cities are not uncommon for the country. They are a reminder of the colonial past and make up the culture of today's India.

The charm of an abandoned fort

The fortress was built from volcanic bricks. It has very high walls and consists of two terraces. From the loopholes, a beautiful view of the jungle opens up, which comes right up to the building itself. Previously, holes in the walls served to repel unexpected attacks, but now tourists look around with pleasure from them.

The walls and ground are covered with small vegetation, which gives the fort its name. From the outside, it seems that a beautiful princess can be hidden in this castle, who is languishing in anticipation of her prince. There is a flagpole on the highest tower. From the topmost platform you can see the ribbon of the river, along which ships and boats loaded with spices went.

There is a document in the National Library in Rio de Janeiro called Manuscript 512, which tells of a group of treasure hunters who discovered a lost city in the Brazilian jungle in 1753.

The text is a kind of diary in Portuguese and is in a rather poor condition. Nevertheless, its content inspires the search for more than one generation of researchers and amateurs - treasure hunters.

Manuscript 512 is perhaps the most famous document of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro and, from the point of view of modern Brazilian historiography, is "the basis of the biggest myth of national archeology." In the XIX-XX centuries. the lost city described in Manuscript 512 has been the subject of heated debate, as well as relentless search by adventurers, scientists, and explorers.

The document is written in Portuguese and is entitled "Historical report on an unknown and large settlement, ancient, without inhabitants, which was discovered in the year 1753" ). The document has 10 pages and is written in the form of an expedition report; at the same time, taking into account the nature of the relationship between the author and the addressee, it can also be characterized as a personal letter.

Percival Harrison Fawcett was one of the most heroic figures of the 20th century. An outstanding British archaeologist became famous for his expeditions to Latin America. Perhaps not everyone is able to spend most of their almost sixty years of life in wanderings and in military service.

Fawcett went on an expedition in 1925 in search of this city (he called it the lost city "Z"), which he believed was the capital of an ancient civilization created by immigrants from Atlantis.

Others, such as Barry Fell, believed that the strange symbols seen in the city were the work of the Egyptians of Ptolemy's time. In addition, the city has a lot of evidence from the time of the Roman Empire: the Arch of Constantine, the statue of Augustine. Below are excerpts from this document.

The entire Fawcett expedition did not return, and its fate forever remained a mystery, which soon obscured the very mystery of the lost city.

The subtitle of the document says that a certain group of bandeirants ("Indian hunters") spent 10 years wandering through the interior of unexplored regions of Brazil (sertans) in order to find the legendary "lost mines of Moribeca".

The document tells how the detachment saw mountains sparkling with numerous crystals, which caused amazement and admiration of people. However, at first they failed to find the mountain pass, and they camped at the foot of the mountain range. Then one Negro, a member of the detachment, chasing a white deer, accidentally discovered a paved road that passed through the mountains.

Having ascended to the top, the bandeirants saw from above a large settlement, which at first glance they took for one of the cities of the coast of Brazil. Descending into the valley, they sent out scouts to learn more about the settlement and its inhabitants, and waited for them for two days; a curious detail is that at this time they heard the crowing of roosters, and this made them think that the city was inhabited.

Meanwhile, the scouts returned, with the news that there were no people in the city. Since the rest were still not sure of this, one Indian volunteered to go on reconnaissance alone and returned with the same message, which, after the third reconnaissance, was confirmed by the entire reconnaissance detachment.

At sunset, they moved into the city, weapons at the ready. No one got caught by them or tried to block the way. It turned out that the road was the only way to get into the city. The entrance to the city was a huge arch, on the sides, which were smaller arches. At the top of the main arch was an inscription that was impossible to read due to the height of the arch.

Behind the archway was a street with large houses, the entrances of which were made of stone, on which there were many different images, darkened with time. Cautiously, they entered some houses in which there were no traces of furniture or other traces of a person.

In the center of the city there was a huge square in the middle of which stood a high column of black granite, on top of which stood a statue of a man pointing to the North with his hand.

At the corners of the square there were obelisks, similar to Roman ones, which had significant damage. On the right side of the square stood a majestic building, apparently the ruler's palace. On the left side were the ruins of a temple. On the surviving walls, frescoes were painted, decorated with gilding, reflecting the life of the gods. Behind the temple, most of the houses were destroyed.

In front of the ruins of the palace, a wide and deep river flowed, with a beautiful embankment, which in many places was littered with logs and trees brought by the flood. Canals and fields branched off from the river, overgrown with beautiful flowers and plants, including rice paddies, on which there were large flocks of geese.

Leaving the city, they went downstream for three days until they came to a huge waterfall, the sound of water of which was heard for many kilometers. Here they found a lot of ore containing silver and apparently brought from the mine.

To the east of the waterfall there were many large and small caves and pits, from which, apparently, ore was mined. In other places there were quarries with large cut stones, some had inscriptions similar to those on the ruins of a palace and a temple.

At a cannon shot distance in the middle of the field stood a rural house about 60 meters long with a large porch and a staircase of beautiful colored stones leading to a large hall and 15 smaller rooms decorated with beautiful frescoes and a swimming pool inside.

After several days of travel, the expedition split into two groups. One of them, downstream, met two white men in a canoe. They had long hair and were dressed in European style. One of them, named Joao Antonio, showed them a gold coin found in the ruins of a farmhouse.

The coin was rather large and depicted a figure of a man on his knees, and on the other side a bow with an arrow and a crown. According to Antonio, he found the coin in the ruins of a house that was apparently destroyed by an earthquake that forced the inhabitants to leave the city and the surrounding area.

Part of the pages of the manuscript is completely unreadable, including a description of how to get to this city due to the poor condition of the sheets of Manuscript 512. The author of this diary declares with an oath that he will keep it secret and especially information about the location of abandoned silver and gold mines and gold-bearing veins on the river.

The text contains four inscriptions copied by bandeirants, made in unknown letters or hieroglyphs: 1) from the portico of the main street; 2) from the portico of the temple; 3) from a stone slab that closed the entrance to the cave near the waterfall; 4) from the colonnade in a country house.

At the very end of the document, there is also an image of nine signs on stone slabs (as you might guess, at the entrance to the caves; this part of the manuscript has also been damaged). As the researchers noted, the given signs most of all resemble the letters of the Greek or Phoenician alphabet (in some places also Arabic numerals).