Sanchi

Sanchi is a hilltop complex of Buddhist monuments in Raisen District, Madhya Pradesh, India, about 46 kilometers northeast of Bhopal, generally regarded as the best-preserved group of Buddhist monuments in India. Its monuments span from the Mauryan Empire in the 3rd century BC, when the emperor Ashoka commissioned an original hemispherical brick stupa to enshrine relics of the Buddha, through the Gupta period of the 5th century AD, to roughly the 12th century AD, as later dynasties, notably the Shungas of the 2nd century BC and the Satavahanas of the 1st century BC and AD, enlarged and elaborately decorated the site with carved stone gateways and reliefs. The Great Stupa, also called Stupa Number One, is the centerpiece and one of the oldest stone structures in India, standing alongside two smaller stupas, temples, and pillars, and the whole complex is considered to trace the development of Buddhist architecture in India from its earliest period to the religion's decline in the subcontinent.