The Temples

There are three groups of temples at Khajuraho. The Western group has temples to Shiva and Vishnu. The northern group has Vaishnava temples for the most part and the south eastern group consists of Jain temples.
The oldest of these temples, dating back to 900 CE is the Chaunsat Yogini temple in the western group, located southwest of the Shibsagar lake.

To the north of this is the Kandariya Mahadeo temple, the largest in Khajuraho. It is considered to be the best representation of the Khajuraho style of Indo Aryan temples - consisting of a sanctum - Garbhagriha, a circumambulatory path - Pradakshinapatha, an Antarala, Ardhamandapa, Mandapa and a Mahamandapa. The sanctum enshrines a marble Shivalingam.

To the north of this temple is the Devi Jagadambi temple. Further north is the Sun temple, enshrining an image of the Sun God, on a chariot pulled by seven horses. To the extreme north of this, is the Vishwanath temple, built along the lines of the Kandariya Mahadeo temple. Inscriptinos reveal that it was built by King Dhanga and that an emerald image of Shiva - Marakateswara was enshrined here. South west of this temple is the Parvati temple.

Emperor Lakshavarma is credited with building the Lakshmana-Chaturbhuja temple at Khajuraho. The image enshrined here said originally to be from Tibet was gifted to Lakshavarma by the Pratihara ruler Devapala. This is a three headed image of Vishnu, bearing a human, varaha and a simha head. The Matangeswara temple enshrines Shiva, in the form of a highly polished Shivalingam. There is also a small Varaha temple in the vicinity.

The eatern group has temples to Bhrama (Shiva), Vaamana, and Javari. The Jain temples in the south eastern group are very similar in construction to the others. The Parsvanatha temple is the largest of these. There are also temples to Ghantai and Adinatha.