The Badami Cave Temples are considered to be one of the finest examples of rock-cut temple architecture in India. They date from the Chalukya dynasty 6th until 8th century CE when Badami was the capital of the Chalukya empire.

The four main caves are situated just above the Agasthya water tank east of Badami, cut into the hills surrounding the lake. The caves are dedicated to Shiva (1), Vishnu (2 and 3) and Jainism (4).

There is another cave number 5 which is probably dedicated to Buddhism and can only be reached by hard climbing, not part of the accessible cave complex.

Just recently in 2015 another cave with more than 20 carvings from Hindu mythology had been found about 500m away from the main caves.

Today the village of Badami has the look of an ordinary south indian village, except for the temples scattered around town, the fortifications on the hills around Badami and of course the famous temple caves.

But between the 6th and 8th century CE it was the capital of the Badami Chalukya dynasty. In this period the Chalukyas managed  to merge many smaller kingdoms in south and central india into a state that covered an area of today Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

After 757 Badami was part of many different empires and never regained its status of the Chalukya days.