What are the ancient ruins of Hampi?
Imagine a city so grand it had markets filled with rubies and emeralds, elephant stables bigger than your school, and temples carved from whole hills of stone. Then imagine it all abandoned — left to the wind and the monkeys — five hundred years ago. That's Hampi, and its ruins still stand in India today, whispering stories of an empire that once ruled half the country.
Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, which thrived from 1336 to 1565. At its peak, it was one of the richest cities in the world — travelers from Persia wrote home about streets lined with jewelry shops and spice merchants, about kings who gave diamonds to dancers just for performing well. The city sprawled across fifteen square miles, home to half a million people, all protected by seven rings of stone walls.
