Indian History

'Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysala', the three Hoysala temples in Karnataka, have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. These temples are the Chennakeshava temple at Belur, Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebidu and The Keshava temple at Somnathapura. While the first two are in Hassan district, the third is in Mysuru district.  All the three temples are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Nominations were entered as ‘’The Sacred Ensembles of Hoysalas’’. While the Chennakeshava temple and Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebidu were on the UNESCO’s tentative list since 2014, the Keshava temple at Somanathapur was appended to the other two monuments under the tentative list and all the three were officially nominated by the Centre as India’s entry for 2022-23 in February in 2022. An expert from International Commission on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) concluded the site visits covering all the three temples in September 2022 and the monuments were officially inscri