Parihaspora

Parihaspora, known locally as Paraspore, lies on a plateau above the Jhelum about 22 km northwest of Srinagar. Its Sanskrit name means city of laughter. The Karkota king Lalitaditya Muktapida, who reigned from 695 to 731 CE, built it as his capital, raising a palace and four temples. The chronicler Kalhana records a Vishnu image made with 84,000 tolas of gold and a towering copper Buddha, and the main temple was larger than Lalitaditya's famous shrine at Martand.

The city declined soon after his death. A later king stripped its buildings for his own capital, it was set on fire during King Harsha's war with Uccala late in the 11th century, and Sultan Sikandar destroyed the temples in the 14th century. What remains are big boulders, some richly carved, and foundations still in place, which locals call Kani Shahar, the city of stones. Some of the best carved figures are now in the Srinagar museum.