Murudeshwar, Uttara Kannada

The Murudeshwar Shiva temple at Murudeshwar in Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, 160 kilometres from Mangaluru — a late-20th century temple complex overlooking the Arabian Sea, with a 37-metre seated Shiva statue (the second-tallest Shiva statue in India after the 2010 Kailashnath Mahadev Statue in Nepal) and a 76-metre 20-storey gopuram. The complex was commissioned and funded by the industrialist R.N. Shetty beginning in 1980 and completed in 2008. The site itself is sacred as one of the places where Ravana dropped the atmalinga he was taking from Shiva to Lanka. The temple's dramatic sea-cliff location on the Deccan basalt makes it one of coastal Karnataka's most photographed landmarks. The annual Mahashivaratri festival each February draws over 500,000 pilgrims. Managed by the R.N. Shetty-affiliated Shri Marikamba Trust.