Katas Raj Temples

Katas Raj Temples

Katas Raj Temples aka Qila Katas located in Choa Saidan Shah, Chakwal District, Punjab, Pakistan. The region of Katas Raj is a sacred place for the followers of the Hindu religion. There are centuries-old temples here but there is also a pond whose history is thousands of years old. Apart from the temple, there is also a mansion, Baradari.

Katas Raj Temples
CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

According to historians, the history of the temples of Katas Raj is more than two thousand years old. There is also a pond about which it is a common tradition in Hinduism that it is made of the tears of the Hindu god Shiva. When he cried over the death of his wife, a tear fell here which turned into a pond. The water of this pond is considered sacred by the Hindus.

Prior to 2005, the temples were in ruins, but the then government launched a plan to restore them. Lal Krishna Advani, an Indian politician, and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, then leader of the ruling party in Pakistan, laid the groundwork for the restoration project.