Buddhist Monuments

Top choice in Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh

Emperor Ashoka's 3rd-century BC Great Stupa, and many other stupas, temples, pillars, gateways and monasteries built in succeeding centuries, stand at the top of Monuments Rd, with the ticket office near the beginning of the road.

Autorickshaws will take you up to the monuments for ₹30 if you don't want to walk. If you're interested in a guide, licensed government guides mill about outside the entrance to the monuments and charge ₹475/750 for four/eight people for three or four hours. If you’re going up to the stupas for sunrise, buy a ticket the day before. Remember, it’s auspicious to walk clockwise around Buddhist monuments.

Suggest an edit to this attraction

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Tribal Museum

28.19 MILES

Step through the looking glass into what feels like an enchanted forest at this surreal place that is unlike any museum you will have visited before…
Taj-ul-Masjid

26.65 MILES

Bhopal’s third female ruler, Shah Jahan Begum, wanted to create the largest mosque in the world, so in 1877 she set about building the Taj-ul-Masjid…
Udaigiri Cave Shrines

4.38 MILES

Cut into a sandstone hill 5km northwest of Vidisha are some 20 remarkable, mostly Hindu, cave shrines from the 4th century AD (Gupta period). The first…
State Museum

28.13 MILES

This first-class archaeological museum spread over numerous galleries includes some wonderful temple sculptures as well as 87 10th- and 11th-century Jain…
Southern Gateway

0.1 MILES

The back-to-back lions on the pillars of the monuments compound's Southern Gateway (the oldest) were a favourite Ashokan motif and now form the state…
Eastern Gateway

0.09 MILES

The breathtakingly carved figure of a yakshi (mythical fairylike beings), hanging from an architrave on the Eastern Gateway, is one of Sanchi’s best-known…
Northern Gateway

0.07 MILES

The Northern Gateway, topped by a broken wheel of law, is the best preserved of the toranas. Elephants support the architraves above the columns, while…
Western Gateway

0.09 MILES

Pot-bellied dwarves support the architraves of the Western Gateway, which has some of the site’s most interesting scenes. The back of the bottom…

View more attractions

Nearby Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh attractions

1. Stupa 4

0.04 MILES

The 2nd-century BC Stupa 4 stands behind Stupa 3, but only its base is left.

2. Chetiyagiri Vihara

0.04 MILES

The vihara (literally 'resting place'), just outside the monuments compound, was built to house relics of the Buddha's disciples Sariputta and Moggallana,…

3. Stupa 3

0.05 MILES

Stupa 3 is northeast of the Great Stupa and similar in design, though smaller, with a single, rather fine gateway. It dates from the 2nd century BC and…

4. Temple 31

0.07 MILES

The rectangular Temple 31 was built in the 6th or 7th century, but reconstructed during the 10th or 11th century. It contains a well-executed image of…

5. Stupa 5

0.07 MILES

Between the Great Stupa and Stupa 3 is the small Stupa 5, unusual in that it once contained a statue of Buddha, now displayed in the Archaeological Museum.

6. Northern Gateway

0.07 MILES

The Northern Gateway, topped by a broken wheel of law, is the best preserved of the toranas. Elephants support the architraves above the columns, while…

7. Pillar 35

0.07 MILES

Pillar 35 (northwest of the Great Stupa) dates from the 5th century AD. Its capital, with a figure of the Bodhisattva Vajrapani, is in the Archaeological…

8. Pillar 26

0.08 MILES

The 5th-century AD Pillar 26 is an inferior imitation of Pillar 10. Its lion capital can be seen in the Archaeological Museum.

View more attractions