Palitana

Palitana has over 850 temples atop sacred Mount Satrunjaya (the “hill that conquers enemies”), which makes it most of any temple city. Many of these temples date to 15-16th centuries while some of them date to even earlier periods. The top is reached by climbing (or by being carried up) 3,572 steps—a stiff 2-hour ascent. Amid the massive warren of white marble shrines and temples, you’ll encounter many devotees dressed in white, some wearing gauze masks to filter innocent microbes from the air that they breathe. Some of the devotees attain ecstatic heights, practicing their faith with devotional singing, clapping, and humming. Others create devotional patterns on the ground using rice and nuts, or are seen gently waving fly-whisks over the idols as a gesture of respect.

Exhibits ancient manuscripts, idols, history of Jainism, life of Jain Tirthankara Mahavira, models of incidents and legends from Jain universal history. Some information is in English.

The temple has a large model of Jain cosmic world. Large number of explanatory notes in Gujarati is there with art explaining Jain view of the world. A show is held in evening explaining views like the earth is no round and the Apollo mission to Moon was hoax.