The Somnath Temple stands directly on the Arabian Sea coast on a promontory at the southernmost point of the Saurashtra peninsula. It is one of the twelve jyotirlingas — shrines of Shiva found across India — and is considered the first and most sacred of them. The current temple, completed in 1951 in the Chalukya style using stone from Rajasthan, is imposing from a distance and ceremonially important: the main shivalinga sits at a spot that Hindu tradition identifies as the original Somnath, a self-manifested shrine of great antiquity.
The temple is active and crowded throughout the day, especially at the three daily arti ceremonies (morning, afternoon, evening). The evening aarti, with the sea crashing against the ramparts and the lights of the temple reflected in the water, is the most atmospheric. Non-Hindus are allowed inside the temple complex. There is a strict no-photography rule inside the main shrine. The light-and-sound show in the grounds runs every evening and tells the temple's turbulent history against the backdrop of the sea.