Hampi

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This article is about a world heritage site. For the town, see Hampi (town).

Group of Monuments at Hampi

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Location Ballari district, Karnataka, India

Includes Virupaksha Temple

Criteria Cultural: i, iii, iv

Reference 241

Inscription 1986 (10th Session)

Endangered 1999–2006

Area 4,187.24 ha

Buffer zone 19,453.62 ha

Website Archaeological Survey of India - Hampi

Coordinates 15°20′04″N 76°27′44″E

 Location of Hampi

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Hampi, also referred to as the Group of Monuments at Hampi, is a UNESCOWorld Heritage

Site located in east-central Karnataka, India.[1] It became the centre of the Hindu Vijayanagara
Empire capital in the 14th century.[2] Chronicles left by Persian and European travellers, particularly
the Portuguese, state Hampi was a prosperous, wealthy and grand city near the Tungabhadra River,
with numerous temples, farms and trading markets. By 1500 CE, Hampi-Vijayanagara was the
world's second-largest medieval-era city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at that time,
attracting traders from Persia and Portugal.[3][4] The Vijayanagara Empire was defeated by a coalition
of Muslim sultanates; its capital was conquered, pillaged and destroyed by sultanate armies in 1565,
after which Hampi remained in ruins.[2][5][6]
Located in Karnataka near the modern-era city of Hosapete, Hampi's ruins are spread over 4,100
hectares (16 sq mi) and it has been described by UNESCO as an "austere, grandiose site" of more
than 1,600 surviving remains of the last great Hindu kingdom in South India that includes "forts,
riverside features, royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, mandapas, memorial
structures, water structures and others".[7] Hampi predates the Vijayanagara Empire; there is
evidence of Ashokan epigraphy, and it is mentioned in the Ramayana and the Puranas of Hinduism
as Pampaa
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