'Hampi' explores one of the most beautiful and evocative of all historical sites in south India. Austere and grandiose, Hampi was the seat of the Vijayanagara Empire in the mid-14th century, when art and architecture flourished. Contemporary chroniclers from Arabia, Italy, Portugal and Russia, visited the empire leaving behind glowing accounts of a city that was conquered by Muslim invaders in AD 1565, pillaged for 6 months and abandoned. Declared a World Heritage Site in 1986, Hampi's dramatic landscape contains examples of secular architecture, market places, royal palaces and temple complexes. The most splendid monument is the Vitthala Temple Complex with its musical pillars and the stone chariot. The temples are renowned for their florid ornamentation, intricate carvings, magnificent pavilions, stately pillars and a wealth of iconographic and traditional depictions. This book also includes site plans and three-dimensional reconstructions of the site.