Three days in Hampi: an empire's capital, burnt out and left in the boulders
Two nights among the ruins of Vijayanagara. Granite temples, a stone chariot, and a landscape of boulders that looks nothing like the rest of India.
- Length
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Where you stay
- Hampi
- Places
- 8 across 3 days
In 1500 Vijayanagara was one of the biggest cities on earth, a Hindu capital of perhaps half a million people that Portuguese and Persian visitors described as the size of Rome and considerably richer. In 1565 the empire lost a battle, the army withdrew, and the city was systematically destroyed over the following months. Nobody moved back in.
What is left is the strangest landscape in India: temples, gateways, palaces, aqueducts and market streets spread across forty square kilometres of granite boulders that have been sitting there for a couple of billion years, with the Tungabhadra river running through the middle and banana plantations filling the gaps.
Three days is right. It is enough to walk it properly rather than being driven between the five biggest things, which is the way most of Hampi is seen and the wrong one.
Highlights
- A temple that was here before the empire and is still working, with an elephant in the courtyard
- The stone chariot at Vittala, which is on the fifty rupee note
- Sunset from a granite hill above the whole site
- A ruined market street a kilometre long, with a monolithic bull at the end of it
- Elephant stables built for eleven animals, still standing in a row
Where to stay
Hampi, two nights
The site divides into three. The sacred centre around the working temple and the old bazaar, at the western end near the river. The riverside stretch running northeast to the finest temple on the site. And the royal centre, a couple of kilometres south, where the palaces, the stables and the water works are.
One area a day, walked rather than driven, is how Hampi is meant to be taken. The paths between the boulders are half of what you came for and no vehicle goes down them.
Two nights is the minimum that works. A single night forces the whole site into one day by rickshaw, which is how most people do it and why most people remember five monuments and no landscape.
Day by day
Day 1 in Hampi
The working temple, the old hill shrines and sunset from the rock
Most people arrive off an overnight bus or train in the early morning, which is a horrible way to start and does at least mean the first day is a full one. Sleep, eat, and start in the afternoon.
The temple at the western end has been in continuous worship since well before the empire was founded, which makes it the one part of Hampi that never became a ruin. It has a fifty metre gateway tower, a courtyard with a temple elephant in it, and a wonderful piece of physics in a dark back room where a pinhole throws an inverted image of the tower onto the wall.
Behind it, a low hill is covered in small granite shrines with pyramidal roofs, most of them older than the empire and built in a plainer style. It is a five minute climb and almost nobody goes up.
Then the bigger hill east of the bazaar, for sunset. It is a steep twenty minutes on rough steps and the reward is the whole site laid out below you: the river, the temple towers, the boulders and the banana fields, all going orange at once.
- 15:00
Virupaksha Temple
ReligiousStill a working temple, so shoes off at the entrance and a small charge to leave them. Look for the pinhole image of the gateway projected upside down in the rear chamber, which nobody points out.
- 17:00
Hemakuta Hill temples
VisitA hillside of small shrines just south of the main temple, several of them pre-Vijayanagara and built in a much plainer style. Free, unfenced, and a good place to sit for half an hour.
- 18:00
Matanga Hill
NatureThe best viewpoint on the site, twenty steep minutes up from the bazaar end. Go about an hour before sunset, take a torch for coming down, and do not do the climb alone after dark.
With more time: The coracle crossing to the north bank runs during daylight when the river allows, and the far side is quieter, greener and full of small guesthouses. Even if you are staying south, the ten minute ride in a round basket boat is worth doing once.
Day 2 in Hampi
The riverside path, the stone chariot and the last temple built
The whole day runs northeast along the river, and the way to do it is to walk. There is a footpath from the bazaar that follows the bank past shrines, carved steps, ruined mandapas and boulders with lingas cut into them, and it takes about an hour at a reasonable pace.
Halfway along is a big temple complex of 1534, the last built here before the empire fell, sitting in a valley between two hills with a ruined market street running away from it. It is usually empty.
At the far end is the best building on the site. Its courtyard holds a stone chariot with wheels carved to turn, which is the single most reproduced image in Karnataka and is printed on the fifty rupee note, and a hall whose slender columns ring at different pitches when struck. They are roped off now, for the obvious reason.
Come back the way you came. The light on the return leg, late afternoon, is better than on the way out.
- 08:00
Monolith Bull
VisitA monolithic Nandi under a stone canopy at the eastern end of the old bazaar street, looking down the whole length of it. Free, and the natural start of the walk along the river.
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- 09:30
Achyutaraya temple
ReligiousBuilt in 1534 and the last major temple of the empire, in a valley off the river path with its own ruined market street. Hardly anybody walks in this far, which is most of the pleasure.
- 12:00
Vithala Temple
VisitThe finest thing at Hampi, and the one place worth a ticket. The stone chariot, the musical pillars and the carved outer hall. An electric buggy runs the last kilometre from the car park if you would rather not walk it in the sun.
With more time: West of the main temple, on the way out of the village, are a six metre monolithic Narasimha carved from one block and, next door, the largest linga on the site standing in a chamber that is always ankle deep in water. Both are five minutes apart and take twenty minutes together.
Day 3 in Hampi
The royal centre before the heat
Two kilometres south of the sacred centre is where the court actually lived, and it looks completely different: no temple towers, but platforms, enclosure walls, water channels and a group of buildings in a mixed Hindu and Islamic style that the Vijayanagara kings borrowed from their neighbours to the north.
The queens' enclosure holds the best of them. A two-storey pavilion with arched openings and a pyramidal roof, called the Lotus Mahal for the shape of its arches, and beside it a row of eleven domed chambers built for the state elephants, each big enough to house one, with a ceremonial hall in the middle.
Walk on to the main royal enclosure for the audience platform, an eight metre stepped block carved on every side with processions, hunts, dancers and the arriving Portuguese, and a stepped tank of black stone cut in mathematical tiers that was only excavated in the 1980s.
Then Hosapete, and a train or a bus that will almost certainly leave in the evening.
- 08:00
Zanana Enclosure
VisitThe queens' quarter, holding the Lotus Mahal and the elephant stables. Covered by the same ticket as the Vittala temple if you go on the same day; otherwise pay again and consider it worth it.
- 10:30
Royal Enclosures
VisitThe palace area: the great stepped platform the kings watched festivals from, the black stone tank, and a great deal of foundation. Free, unfenced and best before the sun is high.
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- 13:00
Lunch, then Hosapete
EatEat before you go; there is very little at the station. Thirteen kilometres by bus or rickshaw, and the buses run every half hour or so.
With more time: The bathing pavilion at the eastern corner of the royal area is a plain square block from outside and an arcaded courtyard around a sunken pool inside, and most people walk straight past it. It is two minutes from the enclosure gate.
Before you go
When to go
November to February, and it is not really negotiable. Days are warm and dry, the light on the granite is extraordinary, and you can walk all day.
March to May is very hot, regularly over 40 degrees, and Hampi is a place you cover on foot across bare rock with no shade at all. The monsoon from June to September is greener and much more pleasant than it sounds, though the river can rise enough to stop the coracle crossings.
Getting there
The nearest station is Hosapete, thirteen kilometres away, with overnight trains from Bengaluru and Goa and connections from Hubballi. Overnight sleeper buses run from Bengaluru, Goa and Hyderabad and are the commonest way in.
The closest airports are at Jindal Vidyanagar, about thirty-five kilometres away with flights from Bengaluru, and Hubballi, two and a half hours west.
Getting around the site, and where to sleep
Hire a bicycle or a scooter, or walk. The monuments are spread over a large area and a rickshaw for the day is the lazy option, because it keeps you on the road and the road misses most of it.
Accommodation splits between Kamalapur and the village on the south side, and Anegundi and the guesthouses across the river to the north, which are quieter and reached by coracle or a long road detour. The old Hampi Bazaar guesthouses were cleared some years ago, so do not go looking for them. The southern side is dry, meaning no alcohol is sold.
Practicalities on the ground
One ticket covers the Vittala temple and the Zanana enclosure on the same day, so do those two together or pay twice. Most of the rest of the site is free and unfenced.
Carry more water than you think, wear a hat, and take shoes you can get off quickly: the working temples want them left at the door and the granite gets hot enough to matter by ten in the morning.
Hampi is the one place in India where the ruins outnumber the people and the landscape outdoes both. Half of what you remember afterwards will not be a monument at all: it will be the granite going pink at six, the river below the boulders, and the fact that a city of half a million people once stood in a place that is now quiet enough to hear birds in.
Three days is enough to walk most of it. Walk it.
Make it your trip
Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.
Common questions
- Is three days enough for Hampi?
- Yes, and it is the right length. One day covers the famous five monuments and misses the point. Three lets you walk the river path, climb a hill at sunset and see the royal centre without hurrying. Longer is common among people who come to climb.
- Where should I stay, north or south of the river?
- South, at Kamalapur or the village, if you want to be close to the monuments and do not mind that alcohol is not sold. North, at Anegundi or the guesthouses across the water, if you want paddy fields, hammocks and a coracle ride to work every morning.
- Do I need a guide?
- Not for the walking, which is well signposted, but a guide is genuinely useful at the Vittala temple and the royal centre, where the carving rewards someone explaining it. Hire one at the ticket office rather than from whoever approaches you.
- How much walking is involved?
- A lot, and mostly on rock in the sun. Ten to fifteen kilometres a day if you follow this plan on foot. A bicycle covers the flat sections; a scooter covers the road between the sacred and royal centres in five minutes.
- Is Hampi good for climbing?
- It is one of the best bouldering areas in the world, and there is a climbing shop in the village that rents pads and runs sessions. The granite is everywhere and much of it is unclimbed. Do not boulder alone, and do not climb on the monuments.
- Can I combine it with Goa or Bengaluru?
- Easily. Overnight buses and trains run to both, which is why most people arrive at dawn and leave at night. Hampi to Goa is about ten hours, Hampi to Bengaluru about eight.
- Can I change this plan?
- Yes. Copy it and reorder the three areas. The only thing worth keeping is doing the royal centre and the river path in the morning, because both are exposed and there is nowhere to shelter after eleven.