Remains of a great empire - Vijayanagar

The first time most Indians not living within a few hundred miles of Hampi first heard of the site was probably in the late '80s when the group of monuments was added to Unesco's World Heritage list. Both the international body's watch over it, and the lackadaisical approach of Indian tourists still besotted with boating in Ooty or watching the waters meet in Kanyakumari on their trip to South India, have been responsible for letting Hampi 'just be'.

Thankfully. The 14th century ruins - "among the most extraordinary constructions of India," says the Unesco report - nestle within them almost every highlight of classical Indian architecture.

Palaces, temples, marketplaces, watch towers, stables, baths and monoliths lie scattered amidst enormous boulders, which complement the rugged look and historic feel of the place. To complete the calendar look is the Tungabhadra river, its flow providing a much-needed sense of movement in the ambience that has remained frozen in time for long.

Built as the capital of the Vijaynagar empire, Hampi has all the elements that would make any royal proud of his abode. Horses, elephants and dancing girls carved in stone, musical pillars, cusped arches, a lotus-shaped fountain, a stepped water tank, an underground chamber, a massive chariot.

The ruins that speckle about 25 sq km area elicit exclamations after every short distance. The Virupaksha Temple has a nine-tiered 50-metre gopuram. The Vithala temple has 56 stone pillars that produce musical notes when tapped. Then there is the 6.7 mt Narasimha monolith.

The jewels may have been plundered, the city abandoned a couple of hundred years after it was founded, but the grandeur of the last Vijayanagar capital has to be seen to be believed. Even now.