Somnath temple

Somanatha Temple (Sanskrit: सोमनाथ, romanized: Somanātha, lit. Soma = moon nātha = lord/master ) is a Hindu temple, located in Prabhas Patan, Veraval, in Gujarat, India. It is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites, or Tirtha Kshetra for Hindus and is the first among the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. The date of construction of the earliest Somnath temple remains uncertain, with estimates varying between the early centuries of the 1st millennium and about the 9th century CE. Various texts, including the Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana, mention a tirtha (pilgrimage site) at Prabhas Patan on the coastline of Saurashtra, where the later temple would eventually be built, but archaeology has not found traces of an early temple, though there was a settlement there.

The temple was reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by multiple Muslim invaders and rulers, notably starting with an attack by Mahmud Ghazni in January 1026.