India contains Hampi, the ancient city that served as the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire.
Hampi lies in the Indian state of Karnataka, among boulder-strewn hills and the Tungabhadra River. It was the centre of the Vijayanagara Empire, which dominated much of southern India from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
The city contained temples, markets, palaces, aqueducts and defensive works. The Virupaksha Temple remains an active place of worship, while the stone chariot at the Vittala Temple has become one of Hampi's most recognizable monuments.
Hampi was conquered and largely abandoned after the Battle of Talikota in 1565. Its ruins cover a broad landscape rather than a single compact site. UNESCO designated the Group of Monuments at Hampi a World Heritage Site in 1986. The site is sometimes confused with nearby Badami, another important historic centre in Karnataka.