The Sun Temple at Konarak: a solar chariot with twelve pairs of wheels dragged by seven rearing horses

Background

The Archaeological Survey of India places the Sun Temple, Konarak in Odisha in its list of Cultural World Heritage in India, against the year 1984.
Built in the thirteenth century, it was conceived as a gigantic solar chariot with twelve pairs of exquisitely-ornamented wheels dragged by seven rearing horses.
The temple comprised a sanctum with a lofty sikhara, presumably over 68 m. high, a jagamohana and a detached nata-mandira, the hall of dance, in the same axis, besides numerous subsidiary shrines.
The sanctum and the nata-mandira have lost their roof.
The roof of the jagamohana is made of horizontal tiers grouped in three stages, with life-size female sculptures adorning each stage and two crowning members above.
The sanctum and the jagamohana together stand on a common platform studded with decorative ornaments and sculptures.
To the west of the main temple are the remains of the temple of Mayadevi, stylistically assignable to circa late eleventh century AD, that is, earlier than the main Sun temple.
A small brick temple in the south-west corner of the compound was discovered in 1956 during the sand clearance, and images of Balarama, Varaha and Trivikrama unearthed there proved its Vaishnava affiliation.