Madhya Pradesh, India - UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Our first World Heritage Site here in Madhya Pradesh is the Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi. This site is a complex of Buddhist stupas and temples, and it features the Great Stupa, one of the oldest surviving stone monuments in all of India. Originally commissioned by the Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC to cover the relics It stands today at over 16 metres high. It's covered with intricate and superbly detailed carvings that feature the life and teachings of Buddha, but also stories from Indian history, animals and inscriptions too. At each of the four cardinal points of the Great Stupa stands an elaborate Tirana, or again with meticulous carvings both about Buddha, his posthumous relics and the efforts of Emperor Ashoka to spread Buddhism across the region. Also part of the Sanchi complex is the remains of Ashoka's Pillar, a 13-metre high sandstone pillar topped with a carving of four lions. Although the main pillar is long gone, the capstone is still in the nearby museum and it's really beautiful to look at. It's actually really worth spending several hours here, as there's quite a few stupas and temples to check out, and they're all absolutely fascinating. Next up is a really interesting World Heritage site, the rock shelters at Bhimbetka. This is a collection of ancient rock art spread across seven hills and 750 rock shelters, the oldest known traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. Some of the shelters were inhabited up to 100,000 years ago, while some of the rock art on display is over 30,000 years old! Just incredible! As with most rock art World Heritage sites we've been to, a lot of the art has similar themes. You can see animals like elephants, snakes, boars and tigers, and of course human figures doing everyday activities like hunting, fighting, gathering and dancing too, and it's a mesmerising spot where the past just seems to jump off of the cave walls and immerse you in another world. I will say as well, it probably helps that this site is absolutely in the middle of nowhere, and aside from a couple of archaeologists working away, we were the only visitors, which is pretty unusual for a site in India. The final World Heritage site in Madhya Pradesh is the Khajuraho group of monuments, a series of Hindu and Jain temples dating back over a thousand years. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to visit this important religious site, but we look forward to getting there on our next trip to India, so watch this space!