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Somnath temple
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<p>Somnath Temple is a <a href="/facts/Hindu_temple/BvAAj7Yn">Hindu temple</a>, located in <a href="/facts/Prabhas_Patan/nDksBxUo">Prabhas Patan</a>, <a href="/facts/Veraval/z6op1bdF">Veraval</a> in <a href="/facts/Gujarat/HwmVfMwr">Gujarat</a>, <a href="/facts/India/1kKHcnxM">India</a>. It is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites the <a href="/facts/Tirtha_(Hinduism)/dlsbdMU1">Tirtha Kshetra</a> for <a href="/facts/Hindus/8pBQgghs">Hindus</a> and is the first among the twelve <i><a href="/facts/Jyotirlinga/EfUKJt9s">jyotirlinga</a></i> shrines of <a href="/facts/Shiva/SaHL5XBS">Shiva</a>. It is unclear when the first version of the Somnath temple was built, with estimates varying between the early centuries of the 1st millennium and about the 9th century CE. Various texts, including the <i><a href="/facts/Mahabharata/EKbN9XwS">Mahabharata</a></i> and <i><a href="/facts/Bhagavata_Purana/G6g1kxHY">Bhagavata Purana</a></i>, mention a <i><a href="/facts/Tirtha_(Hinduism)/dlsbdMU1">tirtha</a></i> (pilgrimage site) at Prabhas Patan on the coastline of Saurashtra, where the later temple was, but archaeology has not found traces of an early temple, though there was a settlement there. </p><p>The temple was reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by multiple Muslim invaders and rulers, notably starting with an attack by <a href="/facts/Mahmud_Ghazni/zt8JEwo3">Mahmud Ghazni</a> in January 1026. </p><p>In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, historians and <a href="/facts/Archaeology/K3Q5P38R">archaeologists</a> of the colonial era actively studied the Somnath temple because its ruins showed a historic Hindu temple that was turning into an Islamic mosque. After India's independence, those ruins were demolished, and the present Somnath temple was reconstructed in the <a href="/facts/M%25C4%2581ru-Gurjara_architecture/YvahJl5K">Māru-Gurjara style</a> of <a href="/facts/Hindu_temple_architecture/YsV4AJuH">Hindu temple architecture</a>. The contemporary Somnath temple's reconstruction was started under the orders of the first <a href="/facts/Deputy_Prime_Minister_of_India/8Go62Ggb">Deputy Prime Minister of India</a>, <a href="/facts/Vallabhbhai_Patel/XXpFDPoI">Vallabhbhai Patel</a>. </p>