Shatrunjaya

After another 165km ride we arrived in Palitana which is a rather big town at the foot of  one of the most important Jainism holy pilgrim sites ........... Shatrunjaya. It is another large hill ( why cant they build these things on flat ground ???) and at the top there are 863 temples and shrines. The Jainist people believe that building shrines brings good favour from the Gods and here they really must have got some great favours !!

A Breakfast

The climb is 2km long and there are 3572 steps and is recommended to do so before it gets too hot as you are not allowed take food, water or leather items ??? with you !! So we began to climb at 9am and again we were told it would take two hours but we knew that was two Indian hours so we set off at a good pace and made the top in half an hour, but never have either of us been so soaked in sweat in our lives !!

B Angar Pir

Reaching the top we were stunned by what we saw. the buildings were like wedding cakes and nothing seemed real, the carvings and craftsmanship was amazing. Apparantly the temples were built in the 11th century but were torn down by the muslims in the 14th and 15th centuries before being rebuilt in the 16th century .

We stayed for about 2hours but wanted to get to Diu before dark so decided to run down the steps !! Everybody who saw us thought we were crazy and i agree as we could have broken our necks but once you get moving its hard to slow down your momentum takes you down. Two days later our calves and ankles are still letting us know how stupid we were !!! 

C The climb

D The lazy way

E Step 2500

F The Summit

G Shri Adishwara

H Fairytale buildings

I Carvings

J Worshippers

K Me inside a shrine

L Going down