What to expect
Highlights
- Nagareshwara Temple, Bankapura — A 12th-century Western Chalukya temple at Bankapura known as the Aravattukambada Gudi, the "sixty-pillar temple", for its grey-stone hall of ornate lathe-turned columns; an ASI monument of national importance.
- Bankapura Fort — A multi-dynasty fort at Bankapura layered by the Kadambas, Rashtrakutas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas and Adil Shahis and sacked by Ali Adil Shah I around 1565 — its grounds now hold the peacock sanctuary.
- Bankapura Peacock Sanctuary — One of only two peacock sanctuaries in Karnataka, spread over about 139 acres within and around the old Bankapura fort — home to one of the region’s largest populations of Indian peafowl.
- Utsav Rock Garden, Gotagodi — A roughly 50-acre open-air sculpture park near Gotagodi in Shiggaon taluk, opened in 2009 by the artist T. B. Solabakkanavar — thousands of life-size sculptures of rural Karnataka life, the district’s most-visited modern attraction.
