Dhamek Stupa

Dhamek Stupa rises over the deer park at Sarnath, near Varanasi, where the Buddha is said to have given his first sermon after enlightenment, the event known as Dharma Chakra Pravartana. Here he set out the Eightfold Path and formed the first sangha with about 60 monks, which makes the site one of the holiest in Buddhism. Built around 500 CE, the stupa replaced an earlier one raised by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 249 BCE.

The solid cylinder of brick and stone is about 43 m (141 ft) high and 28 m wide. Its lower part bears Gupta floral carving, while the upper section was never finished, though figures and Brahmi inscriptions can still be seen. In the 1830s a British archaeologist found a stone tablet inside that gave the name Dhamek. The Archaeological Survey of India maintains the site, which has shaded gardens and a small museum at the entrance; the stupa also appears in Satyarth Nayak's novel 'The Emperor's Riddles'.