Kamalapura Lake
The big tank on the edge of Kamalapura, where the herons stand at dawn and the museum crowd never comes.
Open
5:30 am – 6:30 pm
Entry
Free entry
Best time to go
Sunrise
Time to spend here
About 45 minutes
Crowds
Usually quiet
On the western edge of Kamalapura, about ten minutes' walk from the Archaeological Museum. Nobody comes here, which is most of the appeal.
About this place
Kamalapura Lake is the tank the town is built beside, a wide shallow sheet that fills after the monsoon and draws down through the dry months. It is a working lake rather than a sight — buffalo come down to it, women wash at the far edge, and the water is used. What it is worth going for is the first hour of the day. Herons, egrets and painted storks work the shallows, the light comes flat across the water, and the whole thing is a ten-minute walk from the Archaeological Museum, which is where everybody else is. There is no gate and nothing to pay. Walk the bund on the town side; the far bank is fields and there is no path round.
Good to know
- Best in the hour after sunrise, for the birds and the light. By ten there is nothing to see.
- This is a working tank, not a swimming lake. People wash and water animals here.
- Walk the bund on the town side. There is no path around the far bank.
- Fullest from October to January; low and muddy-edged by May.
