Hampi

Hampi is the surviving ruin of Vijayanagara, the capital of the Vijayanagara empire that dominated South India between 1336 and 1565. At its peak under Krishnadevaraya (1509–1529) the city is estimated to have housed around 500,000 people, making it the second-largest city in the world at the time, after Beijing. Persian and Portuguese travellers like Abdur Razzaq and Domingo Paes left accounts of its riches — diamond bazaars, irrigation tanks, and an army the Deccan sultanates feared. The Battle of Talikota in 1565 ended that. A coalition of the Deccan sultanates routed the Vijayanagara army, sacked the city for six months, and left it permanently abandoned. What remains is a 41 sq km zone of granite outcrops and ruins along the Tungabhadra: the Virupaksha Temple (still active, the only continuously functioning structure), the Vittala Temple with its musical pillars and stone chariot, the Lotus Mahal in the royal centre, the elephant stables, and dozens of smaller mandapas, gateways, and stepped tanks. UNESCO inscribed Hampi in 1986 (with significant boundary changes in 2012). The site is best explored over two full days — one for the sacred centre around Hampi Bazaar, one for the royal centre near Kamalapur. Cycle hire and auto-rickshaw circuits are both common. Avoid visiting in May; pre-monsoon temperatures push 42°C.