Somanthpur is a historical place which is around 45 km from Mysore and around 130 km from Bangalore. The Kesava temple here is one of the least damaged and well preserved Hoysala temples.
The temple's base is constituted by a 16-pointed star, in some of its corners you can find elephants, as a kind of support. Kesava Temple is the only Hoysala temple with intact roof structures.
This temple is 740 years old.
You can find typical Hoysala style of architecture. The undamaged sculpture in each and every corner of the temple descriebes the effort taken to build the temple.
If you have a little interest in the history and art, this is the place for you. Even though Somnathpur is of the same period of Belur and Halebid, this is not as famous as those.
The place is good to visit in any season of the year. No good food or accomodation is available at the place except some small shops. So carry your food.
Talkad and shivanasamudra are the other places to visit nearby.
route :
Bangalore--->Mandya--->Left deviation--->Bannur--->Somnathpur(130 km)
Mysore--->Bannur--->Somanathpur(45km)
members: praveen, nagaraj, pratibha, ganapati, vasudha, lohith
went by : bike