Mekedatu

Mekedatu, meaning goat's leap in Kannada, is a point on the Kaveri near Kanakapura, where Bengaluru South district meets Chamarajanagar, about 110 kilometres from Bengaluru. About 3.5 kilometres below the confluence at Sangama, the river, more than 150 metres wide at the confluence, forces its way through a granite ravine barely 10 metres across.

Local herdsmen tell of a goat that escaped a tiger by jumping clean across the gorge; in one version the goat was Shiva in disguise. Hollows in the rock on both sides look like oversized hoof prints, said to be the marks of divine goats, and the gap has since been widened by erosion. The current is fast and the rocks are slippery; warning signs say swimming is dangerous, yet many still try, and there have been numerous drownings. Shivanasamudra Falls lies upstream.