Konark Sun Temple
The Sun Temple is the culmination of stately Orissan temple architecture. It is a World Heritage Site and one of the most impressive monuments of religious architecture in the world. Built in the 13th C by King Narasimhadeva I (AD 1236-1264) of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty, the Sun Temple is designed in the shape of a colossal chariot, drawn by seven spirited horses (only one of which survives intact) on 12 pairs of stone-carved wheels, and carrys the sun god, Surya, across the heavens. Surya is beautifully depicted in high-quality green chlorite stone.
The granite exterior of the temple has superb stone carvings of divine and semi-divine deities, mythical beasts and aquatic monsters, warriors and elephants, intricate floral and geometric ornamentations, and voluptuous women depicted in erotic scenes from the Kama Sutra. The dancers are remarkably sensuous, pulsating with human emotion and rhythmic gesture. The poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote of Konark: "Here the language of stone surpasses the language of man."