Highlights
- Vijayanagara-era gopuram, pillared mantapas and carved Yali pillars.
- The city’s oldest temple, with Chola-era roots.
- A living Shiva shrine near Ulsoor Lake.
The Halasuru (Ulsoor) Someshwara Temple is the oldest temple in Bengaluru, a Shiva shrine with Chola-era origins that was greatly expanded in the 16th century under the Vijayanagara-era chief Kempe Gowda. It stands in the Ulsoor neighbourhood near the lake of the same name.

Check entry arrangements. Ask temple staff about visitor entry, dress requirements and access to the inner shrine before you travel, especially if you are visiting as a non-Hindu.
Dress respectfully and follow the institution’s admission and photography rules.
The temple is admired for its Vijayanagara-style architecture — an ornate gopuram, a 48-pillared outer mantapa, a kalyana mantapa and finely carved Yali (mythical-beast) pillars and sculpted panels — and remains an active place of worship.
Road km to Bengaluru Urban; ghat roads and traffic vary — allow extra.
October to February; mornings and evenings are calmest. Maha Shivaratri is the main festival.
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Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.
Verified hotels, homestays, restaurants, experiences, sights, shops and rentals around Halasuru Someshwara Temple — commission-free, with direct contact. Filter by what you need.
Restaurant (indian, asian, continental, bar food, grill, fusion) on 22/A, Doddanakundi Industrial Area 2, Phase 1, Doddanekkundi in Central Bengaluru.
Restaurant (barbecue) on Outer Ring Road in Central Bengaluru. Barbecue, AC.
Café (plant based) on 12th Main, 7th Cross Rd, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar in Central Bengaluru. Plant Based, WiFi, AC.
Café (coffee shop, sandwich, burger) on Outer Ring Road in Central Bengaluru.
Street food (burger) on ITPL Main Road in Central Bengaluru. Burger, AC, Wheelchair access.
Restaurant (global) on ITPL Main Rd, EPIP Zone Brookefield in Central Bengaluru. Global, WiFi, Wheelchair access.
Restaurant (barbecue) on Outer Ring Road in Central Bengaluru. Barbecue, AC.
Restaurant (regional) on Near Home Town, Outer Ring Rd, Marathahalli, Bengaluru in Central Bengaluru.
Restaurant (regional) on Silver Springs Layout, Marathahalli, Bengaluru in Central Bengaluru.
Restaurant (regional) on 1st Main Rd, Kanaka Nagar, Hebbal, in Central Bengaluru.
Restaurant (regional) on Kammanahalli Main Road, Near-Jal Vayu Vihar, Kalyan Nagar in Central Bengaluru.
Street food (burger) on Whitefield Main Road, Mahadevpura, Devasandra Industrial Estate, Krishnarajapuram in Central Bengaluru.
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Find food, accommodation and activities across Central Bengaluru. Browse the guides for places to eat, stay and explore along your route.
Walking routes start at Halasuru Someshwara Temple. Check the route and access before setting out, especially where a road, gate or waterway separates the stops.
23 more places around Central Bengaluru. Open a guide to plan the visit and onward journey.
5.8 km · 10 min drive
A 300-acre landscaped green lung in the city centre, laid out in 1870, ringed by the red-brick Attara Kacheri (High Court), State Central Library and Government Museum.
4.8 km · 7 min drive
Karnataka's monumental granite state legislature building, completed in 1956 in a Neo-Dravidian style; floodlit on Sunday evenings and viewed from outside.

7.6 km · 13 min drive
A Tudor-revival palace built in 1878 by the Wodeyar royal family, with fortified towers, arches and interiors of Wodeyar-era portraits and furniture.
An ornate two-storey teak palace completed in 1791 for Tipu Sultan, richly carved and painted, now an ASI-protected monument beside the KR Market fort area.
A large hilltop Krishna-Balaram temple at Rajajinagar, one of the biggest ISKCON temples in the world, known for its gopuram, glass-and-gold shrine and multimedia halls.
2.1 km · 25 min walk
One of the largest and oldest lakes in the city, in the Ulsoor (Halasuru) neighbourhood near MG Road, dotted with small islands and offering boating, a lakeside promenade and a Ganesha temple on its bank.
4.9 km · 9 min drive
A hands-on science and technology museum on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, opened in 1965 in memory of engineer-statesman Sir M. Visvesvaraya, with interactive galleries on engines, electronics and space and a full-scale Wright Flyer replica.
India's first aerospace museum, opened in 2001 by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited near the old HAL airport, displaying vintage fighter aircraft, helicopters, aero-engines, a flight simulator and the story of Indian aviation.
4.6 km · 8 min drive
A sky-theatre and science centre at the High Grounds run by the Bangalore Association for Science Education, with domed astronomy shows, a science park of interactive exhibits and a public telescope programme.
A scenic man-made lake created in 1882 by Colonel Richard Sankey between Malleswaram and Sadashivanagar, ringed by a popular walking and jogging track, with boating and plentiful water birds.
The Krishna Rajendra Market (City Market), the largest and oldest wholesale market in the old city — a teeming bazaar of flowers, fruit, produce and wholesale goods beside the Jamia Masjid and Tipu’s fort area.
2.9 km · 4 min drive
A century-old shopping street in the Shivajinagar / Tasker Town area, one of Bengaluru’s oldest and busiest retail districts, packed with clothing, footwear, jewellery and street-food stalls.
A leading visual-arts complex and art college on Kumara Krupa Road, with galleries of Mysore traditional paintings, folk and tribal art, Nicholas Roerich’s Himalayan works and contemporary Indian art; host of the annual Chitra Santhe street art fair.

4.8 km · 8 min drive
One of the oldest museums in India, established in 1865 on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, with archaeology, coins, sculpture and inscriptions, sharing its compound with the Venkatappa Art Gallery and the technology museum.
5.5 km · 10 min drive
The Bengaluru branch of the National Gallery of Modern Art, in the restored early-20th-century Manikyavelu Mansion on Palace Road, with a permanent collection of modern Indian art and rotating exhibitions in landscaped grounds.
A teaching museum associated with the Human Brain Bank at NIMHANS, displaying preserved human brains and neurological specimens only through the institution’s current confirmed visitor arrangement.
The surviving Delhi Gate and bastions of the old fort founded in mud by Kempe Gowda in 1537 and rebuilt in stone by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, beside the KR Market; scene of the 1791 British siege, and a natural pairing with Tipu’s Summer Palace.
A late-17th-century temple to Venkataramana (Vishnu) built by the Wodeyars beside Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace and the old fort, in a Vijayanagara-Dravidian style with carved pillars and a gopuram.

2.4 km · 30 min walk
The oldest church in Bengaluru and one of the few minor basilicas in India, a Gothic-style Catholic church in Shivajinagar with stained glass and a tall spire, famed for the September St Mary’s Feast procession that draws huge crowds.
2.6 km · ~6 min by auto
A British-era Anglican cathedral of 1808 on MG Road, in a neo-classical style modelled on St Paul’s Cathedral in London, with a domed sanctuary, stained glass and a quiet churchyard in the heart of the city.
A former city water reservoir and its associated grassland landscape north-west of Bengaluru, now important for birdlife; water extent changes sharply with rain.
A large public park in Gandhi Nagar on the site of the old Central Jail where freedom fighters were held; some jail structures are preserved, and it is now a green space and the city’s main venue for protests and public events.
3.2 km · 5 min drive
One of the largest and oldest mosques of the Bengaluru Cantonment, in the Shivajinagar / Tasker Town area near Commercial Street, with a colonnaded prayer hall and slender minarets.
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Ulsoor; Halasuru / Trinity metro (Purple Line)
If you are travelling by bus or ferry, check the return service with the operator before setting out. Leave time to reach the stop or jetty after your visit.
Ask at the bus stand for the time of the last service back, not the next one. If you miss it, an auto or app cab is the fallback — agree the fare before you get in.
If you need step-free access, contact the site before travelling. Ask about a level entrance, steps along the route, the nearest drop-off point, seating and accessible toilets.
Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.
One of the largest and oldest lakes in the city, in the Ulsoor (Halasuru) neighbourhood near MG Road, dotted with small islands and offering boating, a lakeside promenade and a Ganesha temple on its bank.
2.1 km · 25 min walk
The oldest church in Bengaluru and one of the few minor basilicas in India, a Gothic-style Catholic church in Shivajinagar with stained glass and a tall spire, famed for the September St Mary’s Feast procession that draws huge crowds.
2.4 km · 30 min walk · straight lineA British-era Anglican cathedral of 1808 on MG Road, in a neo-classical style modelled on St Paul’s Cathedral in London, with a domed sanctuary, stained glass and a quiet churchyard in the heart of the city.
2.6 km · ~6 min by auto · straight lineA century-old shopping street in the Shivajinagar / Tasker Town area, one of Bengaluru’s oldest and busiest retail districts, packed with clothing, footwear, jewellery and street-food stalls.
2.9 km · 4 min driveOne of the largest and oldest mosques of the Bengaluru Cantonment, in the Shivajinagar / Tasker Town area near Commercial Street, with a colonnaded prayer hall and slender minarets.
3.2 km · 5 min driveA sky-theatre and science centre at the High Grounds run by the Bangalore Association for Science Education, with domed astronomy shows, a science park of interactive exhibits and a public telescope programme.
4.6 km · 8 min drive
One of the oldest museums in India, established in 1865 on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, with archaeology, coins, sculpture and inscriptions, sharing its compound with the Venkatappa Art Gallery and the technology museum.
4.8 km · 8 min driveKarnataka's monumental granite state legislature building, completed in 1956 in a Neo-Dravidian style; floodlit on Sunday evenings and viewed from outside.
4.8 km · 7 min driveA hands-on science and technology museum on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, opened in 1965 in memory of engineer-statesman Sir M. Visvesvaraya, with interactive galleries on engines, electronics and space and a full-scale Wright Flyer replica.
4.9 km · 9 min driveThe Bengaluru branch of the National Gallery of Modern Art, in the restored early-20th-century Manikyavelu Mansion on Palace Road, with a permanent collection of modern Indian art and rotating exhibitions in landscaped grounds.
5.5 km · 10 min driveA 300-acre landscaped green lung in the city centre, laid out in 1870, ringed by the red-brick Attara Kacheri (High Court), State Central Library and Government Museum.
5.8 km · 10 min drive
A Tudor-revival palace built in 1878 by the Wodeyar royal family, with fortified towers, arches and interiors of Wodeyar-era portraits and furniture.
7.6 km · 13 min driveWalking and driving times are real routed distances, except the few marked “straight line”, which are direct-line estimates and will read short.Routing: © openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT | Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
October to February; mornings and evenings are calmest. Maha Shivaratri is the main festival.
Entry: Free. Timings: ~6:00 AM - 12:00 PM, 5:00 - 8:30 PM (approx).
In Ulsoor near the lake; Halasuru and Trinity metro stations (Purple Line), autos and buses are close. Remove footwear and dress modestly; pair it with a walk at Ulsoor Lake nearby.
30 to 45 minutes.
Nearby you can pair Ulsoor Lake (2.1 km), St. Mary's Basilica (2.4 km), St. Mark's Cathedral (2.6 km), Commercial Street (2.9 km).
We have not published a story about Halasuru Someshwara Temple itself yet. These cover Central Bengaluru and the wider district, with separate journeys between stops.
These guides explore Central Bengaluru and the surrounding area. Choose a visit that fits your interests, allowing separately for travel between stops.

Route-level itineraries and practical guides for the rest of Karnataka.
Photographs: Udayakumar.p04, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), Varsh aiish (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons.