Munsar Talav and Shrines at Historic City of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India - A UNESCO World Heritage Site
Since ancient times, Gujarat is well known for its architectural heritage in constructing man-made water bodies striving to preserve and re-use water. There just too many of such examples of small and large such lakes and ponds in many villages and towns of Gujarat be it series of reservoirs revealing amazing systems of water harvesting in the ancient Dholavira (one of the five largest Harappan sites) or the Sudarshan lake of Junagadh, the Sahstraling lake of Patan and the Munsar lake of Viramgam...
The Munsar lake of Viramgam, built by the Solanki or Chaulukya queen Minal Devi in the early 11th century, is the largest man-made lake of Gujarat of its time. This lake is constructed in the form of a gomukh and once had more than 500+ shrines on its embankment steps. Only 300+ of these resilient temples stand today and most have either shrines of either Shiva or Vishnu.
