Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Yabba Dabba Doo!

Hampi is a magical place unlike any other I have even seen or know of. The landscape is a bizarre rocky world of smooth round boulders and scattered remains of ancient Hindu temples.
From a distance the rocks look like they are straight from Bedrock, or from a Roadrunner cartoon, stacked up in unbelievable formations that look as though they must have been placed by man. Many boulders really seem to defy gravity as they hang in the air.

Mixed into this wonderful alien landscape are wonderful remains of temples and stoas and other buildings. The austere trabeated structures with chunky columns and beams and oversized capitals look early Greek. There random picturesque compositions adding to there 'acropolis' like appearance.

Whatever you make of the landscape it is amazing and it seems that every turn of the head demands another photo. Even the town centre is different to what I have seen before. A wide straight road that runs from one series of temples to anther 2km away. Sone columns form shopfronts that flank each side of the road. Towards one end they are in use as the bustling heart of Hampi, with money changers, resturants and icecreams stores, but towards the other they are abandoned allowing you to appreciate the strick rhythm and order of the architecture.

to be continued...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

About time you updated us, what a trip this turned out to be !
How many days do we have to allocate for photo showings. Keep up the blogs they are good reading.

Rob said...

thanks mum (nice to know someone is reading this thing)

ozraeli said...

hey! i am too!