Barkur

A quiet coastal town on the Seetha river that was once the Alupa capital, and a trading port long before Udupi or Mangaluru mattered. Tradition counts 365 temples here; what survives lies scattered through lanes and fields: the Panchalingeshwara temple behind its double-storeyed gateway, the dark-stone Kattale Basadi with a single monolithic pillar, the Batte Vinayaka shrine, some twenty acres of fort ruins. All of it free, all of it walkable: the annual heritage walk covers about four kilometres. Come October to February, and take an auto or a local guide, since the ruins are spread out and barely signposted.

Ruins of the Alupa capital, open and unfenced across a working town: temples, a Jain basadi and twenty acres of fort