Simhachalam Temple

The Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha temple stands on the Simhachalam hills, about 300 metres above sea level, within the city of Visakhapatnam. Vishnu is worshipped here as Varaha Narasimha, a form that local legend links to the rescue of his young devotee Prahlada from his father Hiranyakashipu; the name Simhachalam means lion's hill. The present temple was raised in the 13th century under the Eastern Ganga king Narasingha Deva I, and his son Bhanudeva I consecrated it in 1268.

Built in the Kalinga style, the temple is distinctive within that historical region. Its most unusual custom concerns the main image, which is kept under a thick layer of sandalwood paste so that it looks like a linga. Only on Akshaya Tritiya, in the month of Vaisakha, is the paste removed and the deity seen in its true form.