The largest monolithic sculpture in Hampi: a 6.7-metre figure of Narasimha — the man-lion avatar of Vishnu — carved from a single boulder in 1528 AD. The face is terrifying, with bulging eyes and fanged teeth, and the figure sits cross-legged with a seven-headed serpent canopy spread above its head. The craftsmanship is extraordinary given the scale.
The statue stands about 200 metres south of the Virupaksha Temple, near the remains of the Krishna Temple. The site is largely open to the sky now — the original mandapa that sheltered the statue was destroyed in 1565. You can walk around the base of the rock from which the figure was carved and see where the sculptor worked against the natural contours of the stone.