Places to visit in Odisha
57 places to visit in Odisha, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Sun Temple, Barabati Fort, Chausath Yogini Temple, Hirapur and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Odisha volume.
1 UNESCO World Heritage site · 14 National monuments · 3 State heritage sites · 13 Famous places to visit · 8 Offbeat places · 18 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Odisha (1)
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Sun Temple
A chariot of stone for the sun god, its twelve carved wheels accurate enough to tell the time.
National monuments in Odisha (14)
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Barabati Fort
A tenth century fort at Cuttack, left with its moat, its gate and the mound of a nine storeyed palace.
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Chausath Yogini Temple, Hirapur
A roofless circle of sixty four yoginis, ninth century, and only twenty five metres across.
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Jagannath Temple
Where the deities are rebuilt from neem wood every twelve to nineteen years, and the old ones buried in the temple grounds.
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Kapilash Temple
A Shiva temple on a hill in Dhenkanal, reached by thirteen hundred and fifty two steps.
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Lalitgiri
A relic casket that may hold the Buddha's remains.
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Lingaraja Temple
Fifty five metres of sandstone from the eleventh century, the fullest expression of the Kalinga style.
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Mukteshvara Temple
A small tenth century temple in Bhubaneswar with a carved stone gateway, called the gem of Odishan architecture.
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Parsurameswara Temple
The best preserved of the early Bhubaneswar temples, seventh century, and small.
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Pushpagiri Vihara
A Buddhist university on three hills, lost until 1995 and still being dug.
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Rajarani Temple
No deity inside, only the carving.
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Ratnagiri
A Buddhist monastery of the fifth century on a hill, its doorway carved as finely as anything in India.
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Sisupalgarh
A fortified city older than Bhubaneswar, laid out on a grid, with eight gates still traceable.
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Udayagiri Buddhist Complex
The largest of the three, still being dug.
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Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves
Jain cells cut into two hills outside Bhubaneswar, some of them shaped out of caves that were already there.
State heritage sites in Odisha (3)
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Khirachora Gopinatha Temple
A temple at Remuna where Krishna is said to have stolen condensed milk for a devotee.
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Kichakeshwari Temple
A chlorite temple at Khiching rebuilt from its own fallen stones in the 1920s.
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Raibania Fort
A triple moated fort in Balasore, one of the largest in eastern India and mostly jungle.
Famous places to visit in Odisha (13)
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Bhitarkanika National Park
Saltwater crocodiles and mangrove creeks.
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Chilika Lake
The largest brackish lagoon in Asia, wintering a million birds and holding a resident population of Irrawaddy dolphins.
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Daringbadi
Odisha's Kashmir, and its coffee.
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Gundicha Temple
The garden house Jagannath is taken to for nine days in Ashadha, empty the rest of the year.
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Hathigumpha inscription
Seventeen lines cut into a cave at Udayagiri, in which King Kharavela gives an account of his own reign.
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Hirakud Dam
The longest earthen dam on earth.
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Koraput
A plateau town at 870 metres among the Eastern Ghats, the gateway to the tribal markets and the Deomali hills.
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Maa Tarini Temple, Ghatgaon
A much visited temple to the goddess Tarini at Ghatgaon.
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Mahendragiri
A peak of 1,501 metres in the Eastern Ghats, among the highest in Odisha.
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Nandankanan Zoological Park
A zoo and botanical garden between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, four hundred and thirty seven hectares of it.
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Nilamadhav Temple
A hill temple at Kantilo on the Mahanadi where Jagannath is said to have first been worshipped.
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Simlipal National Park
Sal forest and waterfalls on a plateau, holding tigers, elephants and a population of melanistic tigers found nowhere else.
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Tara Tarini Temple
A shakti peetha on the Kumari hills above the Rushikulya, reached by nine hundred and ninety nine steps.
Offbeat places in Odisha (8)
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Barehipani Falls
Nearly four hundred metres, inside Simlipal.
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Bindusagar Lake
The tank beside the Lingaraja temple in old Bhubaneswar, kept by the temple itself.
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Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary
Three hundred and forty square kilometres above the Hirakud water in Bargarh district.
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Deomali
The highest point in the state.
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Duduma Falls
The Machkund dropping into a gorge.
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Duduma Waterfalls
A waterfall at the edge of Koraput district, on the Odisha border.
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Gandhamardhan hills
A hill between Balangir and Bargarh, known for the medicinal plants that grow on it.
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Khandadhar Falls
Two hundred and forty metres, in iron ore country.
Hidden gems in Odisha (18)
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Anshupa Lake
A horseshoe lake left behind by the Mahanadi, with Saranda hill above it.
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Bhattarika Temple
A temple on the Mahanadi at Sasanga, reached by boat when the river is high.
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Chandipur Beach
The sea withdraws five kilometres twice a day here, and people walk out onto the seabed.
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Chandrabhaga Beach
Three kilometres from the sun temple, where the sun is worshipped at dawn on Magha Saptami.
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Dhauli
Where Ashoka's edicts are cut into rock above the Daya river, on the battlefield that turned him from war.
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Gahirmatha Beach
The largest olive ridley rookery in the world.
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Gopalpur on Sea
A port the British used for shipping labour to Burma, now a quiet beach with the old jetty still standing.
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Huma Temple
A temple that leans, and has not fallen.
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Jagannath Temple, Koraput
A twentieth century temple where the sanctum is open to everyone, which Puri's is not.
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Joranda Falls
A single drop of a hundred and fifty metres in Simlipal, best seen from the far side.
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Kanjia Lake
A lake inside Nandankanan with boats on it, and the zoo round it.
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Odisha State Museum
Eleven galleries in Bhubaneswar, and a palm leaf manuscript collection nobody else can match.
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Pipili
Applique, in colours you can see from the road.
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Puri Beach
Sand art, and the sea before the temple.
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Raghurajpur
Every house paints pattachitra.
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Samaleswari Temple
Western Odisha's presiding goddess.
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Talasari Beach
Where the Subarnarekha meets the sea at the Bengal border, with casuarina behind it.
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Udayagiri, Jajpur
The largest Buddhist monastery of the Odisha triangle, a stupa and two monasteries under excavation.
Collecting in Odisha
What are the best places to visit in Odisha?
LOQAH lists 57 places in Odisha. The best known include Sun Temple, Barabati Fort, Chausath Yogini Temple, Hirapur, Jagannath Temple and Kapilash Temple. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Odisha?
57, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Odisha?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Odisha before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Odisha and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
More in India
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