Our homestay host had arranged a taxi to the Karnakatal Sun Temple. The driver was young and enthusiastic and his vehicle was clean and well maintained. The journey was about an hour through fantastic scenery with tantalising glimpses of the himalayas through trees that looked to me like scots pines.

Because we were with our driver we were allowed in the back entrance to the temple and didn’t have to pay entry, although we did make sure we gave a donation. He told us he came from a nearby village. We paused there briefly on the way back and gave his wife a wave!

The temple reminded us of Angkor Watt. I have William Dalrymple’s book ‘The Golden Road’ on my ‘to read’ list. It’s about the spread of Indian culture throughout the world and I am interested to find out the link that the people who built this temple in the 13th century might have with the people who built Angkor.

Our driver told us that the temple was built in one day by aliens. Misinformation spread by hippies? Tim told me later about a book his Dad had by Eric Von Danekan. He believed all civilisations started with interventions by aliens. Apparently his theories were popular throughout the world in the 1970s. His influence clearly still remains strong in Kumaon. The information at the temple site told a different story however.

Information at the Sun Temple about its origins

It is thought to have been built by King Katarmal of the Katyuri dynasty, around the 13th century. According to wikipedia the Chand dynasty succeeded the Katyuris and ruled until there was an invasion of the area from Nepal.

The Kumaon area of India is very close to the western border of Nepal. Tim and I flirted with the very tempting idea of travelling further into the mountains and crossing into western Nepal. We could then head towards Kathmandu or Pokhara. If we did this though, we would not have time to visit Sikkim, so we decided that that adventure would have to be put on hold for a future visit.

We had the temple almost to ourselves. There were perfect views of the himalayas. I would have loved to have been there at sunrise and sunset. After checking with our taxi driver we walked to the top of the hill overlooking the sun temple. There was an Indian government financed rest house which would have been a beautiful place to stay. In season this is apparently teaming with Indian tourists but now it was completely empty. The guys in charge were happy to cook up some dhal and sabzi (vegetables) with chappati for us before we returned to Almora to pack ready for our journey to Kasar Devi the next day.