Hampi Ruins

Earlier this week I braved the heat and spent a day across the river from where I'm staying and explored the Hampi Ruins.  The river is still eerily dark and red because of the runoff from the storm, but that hasn't been stopping Indians from washing clothes, bathing and drinking it.  They have crazy, crazy immune systems.

The temples you can see across the river are the same ones you could see in the background of some of the climbing photos from my last post.  This temple complex and the ruins of the royal palace above it were the center of a huge city of over half a million people during the 13th to 16th centuries, before it was sacked by a Muslim confederation from the north.  As the capital of an Indian empire, it was larger than all the European cities of that time and attracted traders from the Middle East and beyond.  It's weird to think about because all that's left over from what was once a bustling metropolis are a few villages and a series of ruins.

You can see how intricate some of the temple carvings are in the shot below.  The taller of the two buildings is just a gate house for the temple, and like many Hindu temples a lot of the sculpture is erotically themed.

The cravings are that much impressive because of how hard granite is.  All of the stone in Hampi is granite, and the Indians use it in any and all buildings.  There's so much here it's cheaper to use than wood for construction.  There's a rough granite column in every corners of every building it seems like.  They only use wood for roof supports, and a lot of it is bamboo.

Some of the climbers here were talking about doing a night bouldering session with headlights, lamps and a fire because its so much cooler after the sun sets.  Unfortunately it didn't end up happening last night, but hopefully some time soon it will and I'll be able to take some awesome night shots and post them.  'Til then, bye!