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| Unakoti, Rock-cut Shiva head |
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Tripura is one of the states in India that I have never visited, i have been wanting to visit Tripura for a long time because of some of the gems it houses.
Though not as tourist ready as other states, some of the places that we saw
are indeed worth visiting.
In our short five day trip, we managed to touch all the districts (we did a total of 930 km by road). The roads are quite well-maintained. If you plan to travel to Tripura, don't expect elaborate food menus and great
hotels.You will get everything, but without frills. The lodges that we stayed in were basic. My favourite was the Belonia tourist lodge in South Tripura district.
On our first day, we headed straight to North Tripura towards Unakoti from the airport. We rented a car through an agent in Agartala who also booked the Government run lodges in
the various places we visited.We arrived at Unakoti at 3.30 pm after covering a distance of 145 km. We wanted to see Unakoti in broad daylight, and managed to get
an hour of daylight to see this amazing place! Because of the hilly terrain and the number of stairs, it may not be convenient for everyone to access all the sculptures, but you can see the main ones from a distance .
I am posting some pictures from Unakoti (which means one less than a crore in Bengali) which dates back to the 11 century AD.I have never seen
anything like this before! In fact, these rock-cut faces are considered to be the largest in India. The main Siva head is known as the Unakotiswara Kal Bhairava and is around 30 feet high.
Below is the write up about Unakoti from the ASI :
The combination of these massive rock-cut faces, the greenery, hills, and waterfalls made Unakoti a visual delight. I just loved it!
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| Entry point to Unakoti |
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| The Central Shiva face |
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