Islamabad Diaries:Living the Dream at Katasraj Temple

Again, although this place was not in Islamabad, I’m including it in my Islamabad Diaries because we visited while we were en route to Islamabad.

Katasraj temple is a Hindu temple complex situated in Katas village near Chakwal. Dedicated to Shiva, the temple has, according to Hindu legend, existed for the past 1500 years. The lake in the complex is believed to be filled with Shiva’s tears and are thus said to have magical powers. People also believe that the lake changes color throughout the year, but when we visited it was the regular blue color.

The road to Katasraj is not at all enjoyable, to get there you have to drive up mountains with little/no barriers on the edge. It was very scary and very curvy but the view is great

Scary way up, these stones were the only barriers

Entrance!

These buildings all had little temples inside of them. You could spend a lot of time here and not get tired.  We had a tour guide and he was very helpful when he explained the history of the temple, and how people used the temple. He also showed us one temple that was still in use.

There were a lot of wasps in this area, I almost walked into a wasp nest myself!

This was a really beautiful place, there were a lot of nooks and crannies to explore and it was a great site for people who love photography.

 

Snakecharmer!  luckily the rattlesnake had his teeth removed

We were actually the only ones there at Katas, we didn’t really see any other tourists or visitors which helped us get amazing pictures.

View of the lake and the temple

This site was actually on the top of our list when we were planning our trip to Pakistan. I was very happy when we finally visited even with the dangerous ride there! The Katasraj Temple is actually not very far away from the Khewra Salt Mine. They are probably an hour away from each other.

Like what you see? Follow me on Bloglovin’