Ongole is the headquarters of Prakasam district and the only town in the area large enough to call a city. It sits on the Chennai–Kolkata highway and railway line, about 100 km north of Nellore, and serves as the obvious base for visiting the district's temples and beaches.
The town itself is unremarkable but functional — a grid of busy market streets, modest hotels, and a railway station that connects easily to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Chennai. Ongole is famous across India for the Ongole breed of cattle, a powerful white draught animal exported widely to Brazil and other countries in the 19th century. The breed is still raised in the surrounding villages and is the source of much local pride.