Badami, Karnataka Towering sandstone cliffs glow in the evening light as the craggy hillocks surround you, dwarfing you to a tiny speck. Badami is strictly not just for heritage buffs, even though you go back in time in this ancient Chalukyan capital, Vatapi, where sculptors carved on rock-cut caves and created a montage of deities in stone. The emerald-hued Agasthya Teertham flows in the town and is bordered by several temples. Badami was fortified and a walk up to the Shivalaya is one of the best experiences as you trudge along the path of the ancient Chalukyans who built these temples atop the hills.