Brihadeeswarar Temple (Thanjavur)
How did eleventh-century Chola builders raise a roughly 80-tonne monolithic capstone some 60 metres to the top of the temple's granite tower, and how did they source and move well over 100,000 tonnes of granite to a delta region with no granite quarry nearby — all without cranes, mortar or iron machinery?
c. 1003–1010 CE, Chola dynasty (Rajaraja I) · Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, IndiaAdded July 2026