Khajuraho
Old, layered, dust-and-gold. Royal patronage stacked on Sufi shrines stacked on Mughal mortar.
Khajuraho's 25 surviving Hindu and Jain temples are UNESCO-listed and famous for the wrong reason — the erotic sculptures are maybe 10% of the iconography, the rest is everyday Chandela-era life rendered in sandstone. The western group is the big one (Kandariya Mahadeva, Lakshmana, Vishvanatha); the eastern and southern groups are smaller and quieter. The light-and-sound show in the evening is corny but the temples lit at dusk are genuinely beautiful. One full day covers the western group properly; two if you want the others. Pair with Orchha and Gwalior for a fort-and-temple Madhya Pradesh week.
Source · Wikipedia · Khajuraho_Group_of_Monuments · CC-BY-SA
Old, layered, dust-and-gold. Royal patronage stacked on Sufi shrines stacked on Mughal mortar.