Stepped Tank
A perfectly symmetrical five-tier tank of black schist, unearthed in the Royal Enclosure in the 1980s.
Open
6:00 am – 6:00 pm
Entry
Free entry
Best time to go
Morning
Time to spend here
About 20 minutes
Crowds
Can get busy
A few steps from the Mahanavami Dibba in the same Royal Enclosure; the geometry photographs beautifully in strong midday light.
Listen to the story
About this place
This exquisite stepped tank (pushkarani) in the Royal Enclosure is one of Hampi's most photographed structures. Built from finely cut black schist in five receding tiers of identical steps arranged in a precise pyramidal geometry, it was excavated only in the 1980s and found remarkably intact. Numbered mason's marks on the blocks show the pieces were quarried elsewhere and assembled on site like a kit. A stone aqueduct once carried Tungabhadra water to the tank, part of the sophisticated hydraulic network that fed the royal centre for rituals and ceremonies. The play of light on its diminishing steps is mesmerising.
Where it is
Close by
Photo credits
- Stepped Tank: Temple stepped tank of the Vijayanagara Empire 10-31-2008 1-29-26 PM · Amol.Gaitonde · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Stepped Tank: Stepped tanks from Vijayanagar Empire · Induhari · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Stepped Tank: Pushkarini or stepped tank · Niranjanjb · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Stepped Tank: Public Bath or Stepped tank, Kamalapuram, Hampi · Ssenthilkumaran · CC BY-SA 3.0
