UNESCO included three more Indian monuments on the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in February 2022. According to UNESCO's operational standards, each monument or site must be placed on the Tentative List for one year before being evaluated for formal designation as a World Heritage Site. This listing on the Tentative List is the first step toward recognition as a World Heritage Site.
As of now, 49 sites from India are on this Tentative List. You can find the whole list on their official website. Let's have a look at the three sites that have recently been added to the tentative list.
1. Lepakshi Nandi, Veerabhadra Temple
One of the famous pilgrim centers and an archaeological site in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the Lepakshi Temple is a paragon of excellent architecture and art. The temple is built in the Vijayanagar architectural style and has beautiful sculptures adorning the walls The Gigantic Monolithic Statue of Nandi, which is 27 feet long and 15 feet tall, is the main attraction in the Lepakshi. Another feature that distinguishes the temple as a must-see is a footprint said to be that of Sita.
Once the heart of the Vijayanagara Empire, Lepakshi is culturally and archaeologically significant as it acts as the prime location of the shrine dedicated to Veerabhadra. The Lepakshi Temple, with its magnificent frescoes and murals, is a museum of everlasting art. One of the architectural wonders that we may not see in any part of the world can be seen here in the form of the Hanging Pillar.
How to reach
Kempegowda International Airport (Bangalore International Airport) is the closest airport to Lepakshi Temple, at a distance of 100 kilometres. To get to the temple, take a cab from the airport. Lepakshi is served by the Hindupur railway station, which is the closest railway station. It's about a 12-kilometer drive from the temple, which may easily be handled by a cab waiting outside the station.
The best way to get around Lepakshi is to take advantage of the local bus service, which is both inexpensive and convenient. Another option for commuting is to use a taxi, which is not cheap but is a faster mode of transportation.
To know more about Lepakshi, you can read the articles available in the link.
2. Jingkieng jri: Living Root Bridge
Jingkieng Jari or the living root bridge in Meghalaya is an example of a unique natural phenomenon shaped by human ingenuity. In the forests of Meghalaya, many such living root bridges are preserved by local communities as a tradition of protecting the sacred groves known as 'Law Kyntang.' These forests also possess a huge resource of medicinal plants and herbs. There is an essential need for the rest of the world to return to its roots and respect nature once more.
The roots of a single tree planted on one side of a stream or river are stretched to create the majority of these root bridges. A bridge of this type takes roughly 15 to 20 years to construct and has a lifespan of several millennia. Some of these bridges are said to be over 200 years old, outlasting current technology-based bridges. The Living Root Bridges, with spans ranging from 15 to 250 feet, can withstand storms and flash floods and serve as a symbol of humanity's sacred link with nature.
How to reach
In Meghalaya, Living Root Bridges can be found in the West Jaintia Hills district, the East Khasi Hills district, and a few more places. The best root bridges are concentrated near Cherrapunji. Guwahati is Meghalaya's closest major airport as well as the railway station. Cherrapunji is 148 kilometres from Guwahati and can be reached in 4 hours by taxi. Several government buses run in tandem from Guwahati to Shillong and Cherrapunji at regular intervals.
Here is a wonderful article on the Living Root Bridge Trek just for you.
3. Geoglyphs of Konkan Region
Geoglyphs are rock art created on the earth's surface by positioning rocks, rock fragments, or by the reduction technique, which involves carving away or removing part of a rock surface to form a design. This is one of the first examples of human creativity in the country. The vast concentration of geoglyphs on the Konkan region's laterite plateaus is the most spectacular open-air ensemble of Mesolithic to Early Historic age human expression of rock art.
The most comprehensive, well-preserved, and artistically distinct Geoglyphs evidencing a cultural legacy of 12000 years are depicted in Kasheli, RundhyeTali, Devache Gothane, Barsu, Devi Hasol, Jambharun, Ukshi, and Kudopi in southern Maharashtra and Pansaymol in Goa, with over 600 figures arranged in clusters. The imagery and contents of these geoglyph clusters can also be interpreted as documentation of how people adapted to ethereal wetlands in a dry-arid plateau with shallow rock pools, streams, and watercourses that support a diverse range of endemic and threatened aquatic fauna such as fish, amphibians, insects, and other organisms.
How to reach:
These geoglyphs have been mostly discovered in the Ratnagiri and Rajapur areas of Maharashtra. The nearest International Airport to Ratnagiri is Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. There are many private and public buses available from the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation while traveling from Mumbai to Ratnagiri. As most of these buses travel overnight, you can reach Ratnagiri early the next morning.
If you want to travel by train, you can do so from Panvel, which is the Konkan railway's beginning point near Mumbai. This line passes via stations like Khed, Anjani, Chiplun, Kamthe, Savarda, Arvali road, Sanagmeshwar, Ukshi, Bhoke, Ratnagiri, Nivasar, Aadvali, and Rajapur road. The ride through the green forests, the winding tracks of the mountains, traversing the long tunnels, the creek bridges across rivers, and the charming villages of Konkan on this Konkan railway is a remarkable experience.
In future, more places from our country will be included in this tentative list. And also some of them will make place in the list of World Heritage Sites among the existing 40 numbers of Indian Sites.
What is your favorite Indian sites which you think to be enlisted in this list? Let us know in the comment Section.
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