Mangalagiri — literally "auspicious hill" — is a single 240-metre rocky outcrop standing alone above the flat coastal plain. It is the geological feature that gives the town its name and its religious importance. There are three Narasimha shrines on the hill: the foothill temple of Lakshmi Narasimha, the cave temple of Panakala Narasimha halfway up, and the Gandala Narasimha shrine on the summit.
Most pilgrims stop at the second of these and descend, but the climb to the top — another twenty minutes on a rougher path — is rewarded with a sweeping view across the flat green fields of the Krishna delta, the canal-cut farmland, and on a clear day the long silver line of the Krishna river to the north.