//
Photo: Ms Sarah Welch, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
When facing the museum, walk through the gate on your left and follow the path up the 300 stairs or so. You will pass by the Lower Shivalaya, a canon platform, the granary and will eventually arrive at the top of the plateau, where you will see the ruins of the three granaries and the Upper Shivalaya. Great point for watching the sun set over Badami. Get down in time, as the metal gate to the museum will be locked at 6PM.
Badami Shivalaya refers to one of three 6th to 8th-century CE Hindu temples in Badami, Bagalkot district of Karnataka, India. They illustrate the early Chalukya style, and are among the better preserved illustrations of Dravida Hindu architecture. They are close to the Badami cave temples and other structural temples near Agasthya lake, but the Badami Shivalyas are located near or on top of different hillocks. These include the Upper Shivalaya, Lower Shivalaya and the better preserved Mallegitti Sivalaya found to the north of the Badami town. These temples include Shiva, Vishnu and Devi-related artwork, as well as depict legends from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Contains sculptures of various era from the region. To the left of it starts the footpath going up 300 stairs leading to the Lower and Upper Shivalayas.
This temple is the oldest one of the town. It is built on a flat rock and offers a nice view on Badami. The gate towards the footpath may be closed, though, and it is not accessible from the other Shivalaya temples.
A cluster of sandstone shrines dedicated to the deity Bhutanatha, built between the 7th and 11th century CE.
The main attractions of Badami are its caves. There are four main caves. The first one, dedicated to Shiva, was excavated by the Chalukyas in 550 AD. The second one is dedicated to Vishnu. In this cave there are statues of Vishnu avatars like Varaha, the boar or Krishna. The third cave is also dedicated to Vishnu and the last one is a cave with Jain representations.