Orccha Temple Town

The river is about 200 metres wide and dotted with time smoothed rock flakes and giant round pebbles. Its banks are trimmed in lucious green bushes, trees and palms which hug the feet of stone temples of every conceivable size. At the lower end of the scale there are one foot high four pillar shrines with domed medieval roof plinths, these compete for space with ornate pillars many of which laud it in yellow and orange paint, and then there are what I think of as the community temples, which are everywhere in India. These temples masquerade as front doors but really are walk-in temples that reach one room back from the street, which local people tend to meticulously and where they are commonly found ringing the life out of bells before their puga (prayers) to ensure that God is awake and listening!  

Awash with temples (haha)

But we are still in the temple little league here. The main market square is dominated by an ornate orange temple that could compete in size and eccentricity with a west end theatre, but beside that is one of the most imposing gothic structures I have ever seen. It has huge black faced monkeys and Vultures hunched all over it and it's dark and menacing.

If the scary sky scraper wasn't big enough, a tiny little street leads through a double domed orange archway and tiptoes over another river leading to two collosal palaces with a walled country park full of yet more stunning ancient stone buildings. Some of these have been reclaimed by nature and the odd one is still in use. 

My train leaves in 3 days and I am grateful that I have the time to take in these bizarre edifices from near and far ahead of actually entering them. My appreciation of them is deepening slowly like Rioja.