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Akshardham Temple is
the most recent tourist attraction in India. The temple is
considered as one of the wonders of modern India. The temple is
spread over swooping 30 acres on the banks of the river Yamuna
near Noida in East Delhi. The Akshardham temple is one of the
biggest worship places in North India. Built with sandstone and
marble the monument is amazing architectural feat achieved, with
numerous architectural temple styles.
The temple like monument is built of at least 12,000 tons of
pink sandstone and white marble brought in from Rajasthan. The
temple consists of 234 intricately carved and complicated
pillars. Roofed by 9 ornate domes in all the temple stands well
above 129 feet high, 275 feet wide and 315 feet long. The temple
consists of 20 Shikhars and spectacular Gajendra
Pith (stone elephants). The temple houses 20,000 statues of
Hindu deities and motifs. The construction of temple took five
years and the estimated Rs.400-crore cultural complex, inspired
by Pramukh Swami Maharaj of the Bochasanwasi Shri
Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), will be
fashionable for the cultural education and entertainment". The
temple has drawn stimulation for its architecture from the
historic temples of Badrinath (Uttaranchal), Somnath
(Gujarat) and Konark (Orissa). It is the second
Akshardham temple in the country after the one at
Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
Besides the grand monument the temple has two enormous
exhibition halls intended for visual journey of tourists through
India's cultural heritage and Indian moral values. The complex
also houses an IMAX cinema, a canteen which can accommodate a
maximum of 5,000 people at one sitting, a research centre for
"social harmony" and meditation gardens with fountains and
bronze sculptures. Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon
are some of the nearest cities of Swaminarayan Akshardham
temple.
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