ANCIENT CITIES OF THE WORLD - World Photography Contest 34

Another interesting contest on World Photography community and this week's theme is "ANCIENT CITIES OF THE WORLD ". For this contest I decided to chose Katasraj temple in Pakistan, A temple dating back to Mahabharata era. This is a Temples' complex having different era and religion buildings. Major high light of this place is the pond in Katas raj temple, Hindus believed that this pond was created by the teardrop of Shiva (Hindu god). This place is the 2nd most sacred place for hindus and is also mentioned in Mahabharata, the oldest and sacred book of Hindus.

In Katas Raj temples, I saw an active Hindu Temple for tourist hindus who can perform their religious rituals at this place.

As this place has a history dating back to 4th century CE as a Chinese monk wrote about this place in his travelogues. Oldest architecture found at this place is a Budhmut stupa of king Ashoka era dated back 3rd century BCE. In the 7th century CE after the collapse of the Buddhist empire of Gandhara, Hindus built temples in this complex.

Famous Islamic scholar Al Beruni (973 – after 1050) also stayed here while calculating the radius of the earth. This is a building where Al Beruni lived during this experiment.

In this complex other interesting buildings to visit are Satgraha temples (seven ancient temples). These temples were built during 7th to 10th century AD. These temples' architectural style is like Kashmiri temples style.

Sharing some spiritual paintings carved in Katas Raj Temple dated back to 7th to 10th century AD. These paintings are very bright and vibrant and still lovely to see.

Great place to visit and very well maintained. All buildings and temples are very dark from inside so some candles should lit inside. As this is a religious place so treat it as like. Thanks for reading.