Hoysaleswara Temple

A cluster of Hoysala-era Jain temples (the Parshvanatha, Adinatha and Shantinatha basadis) at Bastihalli near the Hoysaleswara temple, known for lathe-turned polished pillars and a tall image of Parshvanatha.

An early Hoysala temple of 1114 CE near Hassan, unusual for its four-shrine (chatushkuta) plan around a common hall, its stone-lattice screens and a fierce Kali shrine at one corner.

A reservoir on the Yagachi river 3.5 km north of the Chennakeshava temple at Belur, backed by low hills, popular for boating, kayaking and other water sports and as a quiet sunset picnic spot.

The temple of the goddess Hasanamba, from whom Hassan takes its name — unusually opened to devotees only once a year around Deepavali (in the month of Ashwayuja), when vast queues form; a lamp is said to keep burning through the year the shrine stays shut.

A twin-shrined (dvikuta) Hoysala Shiva temple of 1173 CE at Koravangala about 10 km from Hassan, with two well-preserved towers and detailed carving — a quiet alternative to the crowded Belur and Halebidu temples.

The Hoysala masterpiece begun in 1117 by King Vishnuvardhana to mark a victory over the Cholas — a star-platform Vishnu temple worked for over a century, covered in soapstone friezes, madanika bracket figures and pierced stone windows, and still in active worship.

A Gothic-style church built by French missionaries around 1860 on the Hemavathi river, partly submerged each monsoon when the Gorur reservoir fills and re-emerging in summer — a striking, roofless "floating church" ruin popular with photographers.

A star-shaped hilltop fort built by Tipu Sultan in 1792 near Sakleshpur to an eight-pointed Vauban-style plan, with a central rainwater cistern and wide views over the Western Ghats — best appreciated from above.

A three-shrined (trikuta) Hoysala temple of 1246 CE at Nuggehalli in Channarayapatna taluk, built by a Hoysala general, admired for its finely carved Keshava and Narasimha images and star-shaped plan.

The 17.5 m monolithic statue of Bahubali (Gommateshwara) atop Vindhyagiri hill at Shravanabelagola, carved about 983 CE — one of the world’s tallest free-standing monolithic statues and a great Digambara Jain pilgrimage site, anointed at the twelve-yearly Mahamastakabhisheka.

The smaller of Shravanabelagola’s two hills, opposite Vindhyagiri, holding a group of early Jain basadis and inscriptions and traditionally linked to the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta’s final penance under the Jain saint Bhadrabahu.

A panoramic viewpoint on the ghat road between Sakleshpur and Kukke Subramanya, overlooking a vast sea of Western Ghats rainforest in the Bisle reserve forest, with distant peaks such as Pushpagiri and Kumara Parvatha on a clear day.