Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c13.s5.1

c13.s5.1

At a short distance to the west of the town is what is supposed to be the crater of an extinct volcano, the only one known in the Dakhan. It is a great bowl-shaped hollow, five miles around at the top, and about three miles five hundred feet below, where a salt lake occupies the centre, surrounded by a wide margin of land between the bottom of the slope and the edge of the lake. The inner walls of the crater, which differ in nothing from ordinary hill-side covered with jungle and grass, slope down from the upper rim at an abrupt angle of 75° to 80° to the level belt around the lake. In the outer ring of this belt tamarind trees and date palms thrive, while the inner, nearest the lake, supports the bābul tree only. On the northern margin of the lake, where this belt of land is widest, are kitchen gardens and fruit trees watered by the stream which descends from the gaumukha above. The water of the lake is impregnated with a salt which is extracted and sold as a marketable article for use in washing and dying cloth. Although the water is so saturated with this salt, which causes it to give off a very offensive smell, yet in a well, sunk quite close to its edge on the south side, the water is perfectly fresh and is used for drinking purposes.