Kedarnath Temple

Kedarnath sits at 3,583 metres in the Garhwal Himalayas, its grey stone shikhara among the highest of the twelve Jyotirlingas and one of the Char Dham. Tradition credits Adi Shankaracharya with restoring the shrine in the 8th century over an earlier structure linked to the Pandavas of the Mahabharata. Built from massive undressed stone slabs without mortar, the temple's construction let it survive the catastrophic 2013 Kedarnath flood almost undamaged, while surrounding structures were destroyed; a large boulder that deflected the debris flow still rests behind the sanctum. Reachable only via a 16-kilometre trek or helicopter after the mountain reopens in spring, Kedarnath is both an engineering puzzle for historians and the terminus of one of Hinduism's most physically demanding pilgrimages.