Great Stupa at Sanchi

The Great Stupa at Sanchi is a Buddhist monument in Madhya Pradesh, India, and one of the oldest surviving stone structures in the country, originally commissioned by the emperor Ashoka in the third century BC and later enlarged with stone facing, staircases and a surrounding railing. Its hemispherical dome, a rubble and earth core faced in dressed stone, rises from a raised terrace and is topped by a three tiered stone umbrella representing the layers of Buddhist law, while four elaborately carved gateways, or toranas, added around the first century BC, depict scenes from the life of the Buddha and Jataka tales without ever showing the Buddha in human form. The site was abandoned by the thirteenth century as Buddhism declined in India and was largely forgotten until a British officer rediscovered it in 1818. Sanchi survives as the best preserved group of early Buddhist monuments in India and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989.