Somnath Temple

Somnath Temple, on Gujarat's Saurashtra coast, is the first of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva and one of Hinduism's most significant pilgrimage sites, its current structure standing where the sea meets the shore in a scene of considerable drama, especially at sunset. Few temples in India carry a history as turbulent as Somnath's, having been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt over roughly a thousand years of invasions and reconstructions.

The current temple, built in the Chalukya architectural style, dates only to the mid-20th century, a deliberate act of post-independence reconstruction that carried significant national symbolic weight. A sound-and-light show each evening retells the temple's long history, and the site's position directly on the coast, with waves visible from the temple grounds, adds to its striking visual and emotional impact.

Repeatedly destroyed by successive invaders — most notably by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1024 CE — and rebuilt each time by different rulers over the following centuries, the current temple was reconstructed after independence under the initiative of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, inaugurated in 1951.

Somnath has its own small airport with limited connections; the nearest major railhead is Veraval, about 7km away.