Back from the dead, this stunning 12th-century Hoysala temple was submerged when the Kaveri River was dammed in 1930. However, villagers had tantalising glimpses of the ancient structure during drought years when the reservoir waters dropped. Liquor baron and philanthropist Sri Hari Khoday vowed to rebuilt the temple in 2003, and architects photographed and numbered each slab and stone, which were removed block by block and reconstructed by 200 workers at a cost of ₹25,000,000. The project took eight years.
Today the newly restored Venugopala Swamy Temple (its main deity is Krishna) looks in fine fettle in its new, much drier, location 1km from its original position. There's no public transport to the temple, but it can be easily combined with a visit to the nearby Brindavan Gardens in a hired car. It's 28km northwest of Mysuru, near Hosa Kannambadi village.
