Bellum is a small village in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. Bellum derives its name from "Bilum" Sanskrit word for caves.
There is a newly built huge statue of Buddha here.
This place is famous for the caves that is the second largest natural caves in Indian Subcontinent. It is popularly known as "Belum Caves".
Lachung is a small hill station in northeast Sikkim approximately 125 kms from the state capital Gangtok.
This charming town is located at an elevation of about 9600 feet at the confluence of the Lachen and Lachung Rivers. In the local language the name translates to "Small Pass".
During winter the town is usually covered in snow. Even in summer one can see the snow covered peaks. It has been described as the "most picturesque village of Sikkim".
This picturesque place is a base location for tourists who wish to visit Yumthang Valley, Yumesamdong.
How to Reach: This place can be reached from Gangtok via Chungthang Road. But we have reached Lachung from Lachen via Lachen Road. In our trip we first covered the places around Lachen. This is just 50 kms away but the drive through the hilly terrain takes around 1 and half hours.
The Botanical Garden at Ooty is one of the must visit tourist places. This garden has many beautiful flowers and some of them are here:
You can also find carious birds in the garden.
Kadu Mallikarjunaswamy Temple in Bangalore is located in Malleswaram region. The temple is built on a hilly area and temple itself on a hill top.
As per the historic records the temple was built in the 17th century A.D. by Venkoji, the brother of the Maratha King Shivaji.
A flight of 40 steps leads to the temple and as one enters inside one can see main sancum and Parijata tree.
The presiding deity of the temple Lord Shiva in the form of Linga. This linga is much older than the temple, while the other idols accompanying Ganesha, Parvathi, Subramanya and many other are new additions.
This temple has been one of the oldest temple in the city and is very colourful.
We came across many birds during our visit to Talkad. We spotted many water birds in a pond in this small village. One of them is Coot.
Coots are small water birds. They have predominantly black plumage with red to dark red eyes and coloured bills.
Birla Mandir at Hyderabad is built atop 280 feet high hillock. The construction of this new temple built by Birla Foundation was completed in 1976. This temple is now dotting the skyline of modern Hyderabad is located towards the Southern end of Hussain Sagar Lake.
The architecture of the temple is a mix of Dravidian, Rajasthani and Utkala architectures. About 2000 tons of pure white marble has been used to built this temple. The temple has a granite idol of Lord Venkateswara. There is a brass flagstaff in the temple premises which rises to a height of 42 ft.
Apart from the main shrine, the consorts of Lord Venkateswara, Padmavati and Andal are housed in separate shrines.
The Upper Citadel known as Uparkot in Junagadh at the centre of the city is the oldest part of the city. This impressive fort was originally built during the Mauryan dynasty by Chandragupta in 319 BC.
This fort has been attacked for more than 16 times and such siege lasted for around 12 years.
The walls of this fort in some places is as high as 20 meters. Inside the fort walls there was a 300 ft. deep that was once inhabited by crocodiles.
Just inside the entrance are temples to Ganesh, Hanuman and Shakti. Some of other interesting structures inside the fort are:
The fort is a must visit for those people who are interested in historical sites.
Kudtheri Sree Mahamaya Temple in Mangalore is in the Car Street area. It is located very close to another famous temple Sri Venkataramana Temple.
This is one of the oldest temples in the city and has been renovated in the year 2000.
The main presiding deity here is Goddess Shakti known as ‘Kudtheri Sree Mahamaya’. The idol of the main deity was brought from Kudtheri village in Goa in the 16th century.
The temple has several subshrines such as Shri Venkatramana, Shri Srinivas, Mahalaxmi, Mahalasanaryani, Shri Chandramaulishwara and Raktheswari Amma.
The ancient temples of India have inscriptions on them which throw light on the history of that period.
At Ramlingeshwar Temple complex in Avani has several shrines of 10th Century A.D. and one can find some inscriptions in Kannada of that period.
At Shravanabelagola on the Indragiri hill inside the Siddhara Basadi there are two pillars with inscriptions on them. The tops are in the form of beautiful towers. The inscriptions are the epitaphs of two Jaina teachers named Panditarya, who died in 1398 and Srutamuni, who died in 1432 A.D.
We can see inscriptions in the old Kannada on one of the pillar at the 12th century Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebid.
Karanji Lake at Mysore is a beautiful lake spread over a area of 55 hectares with many trees all around even in the lake.
Greater Coucal is a beautiful terrestrial bird. It is a non-parasitic bird also known as Crow Pheasant or Coucal.
Adults are large birds with glossy dark green long tail. It has glossy black-purple head and body with wings that are bright chestnut on upper side, and black on under side. It has black bill and eyes are deep red, legs and feet are dark grey.
It is mostly seen in Asian continent specifically in India, South China, Nepal and Indonesia. They can be seen lives in grassland, at forest edges, near cultivated areas and water. They can be often seen clambering about in vegetation or walking on the ground as they forage for insects, eggs and nestlings of other birds.
Yaganti has many places of historic importance apart from the Uma Maheswara Swamy Temple. From the table when one looks up from the temple, we can see several caves in the massive rocks surrounding the table. Even though most of them are inaccessible, there are 3 caves that are accessible.
These caves are sacred and one such important cave is Agastya Cave where it is believed that Sage Agastya had meditated. To reach the cave, one has to climb a series of steep steps and it is easy to climb them to reach the top without intermediate breaks. There is a small Shiva Linga inside the cave.
The light streamed in through the gaps in the cave and in the distance, The view of the temple from the stairs of these cave is amazing.
