Hey guys, this is the Virupaksha Temple in Hampi built about 1400 years ago, and it has a very mysterious phenomenon happening inside the temple. In one of the dark chambers, we can see an inverted image of the temple tower. Here you can see the shiny golden image of the tower appearing upside down on the wall. If you look carefully, you can see the entire tower with all the details, including the metallic structure on the top of the tower. And what's even more interesting, this image only appears in the afternoons, you cannot see this inverted golden tower in the mornings- It only happens between 2 pm to 6 pm. Exactly on the other side of the chamber, we can see a hole, which is about one foot wide. If you look through this hole, you can see the actual tower of the temple, which is 160 feet tall.
Now, How is it possible that we see an upside down image of the tower? Is this image real? Or is it some kind of magic or illusion? Even today, thousands of people visit this temple to view this miraculous sight.
My very first suspicion was that the wall was painted with some sort of material that can glow-in-the-dark, like phosphors. This is because in bright light, the wall still shows a dark triangle which appears to have some kind of a paint or may be it is just dirt. So, I asked this gentleman to hold up a cloth, in front of the wall. Which means, if it is really the light coming from the tower through this hole, we should be able to see the image on the cloth as well. But if it is just a trick, the image will not appear on the cloth. But as you can see, the image also appears on the cloth, which means that this in fact the image of the tower using the light that is coming through this hole.
Now, the final test is to cover the hole and see if this image will disappear. This will confirm if the light that produces the image actually comes through this particular hole. So, I asked my friend to cover the hole, and once he covers the hole with his hands, you can see that the image disappears on the wall. So the light does in fact come through this particular hole which has no lenses or anything attached. And if you go outside, you can see this hole from the outside, and it is directly pointing to the temple tower.
Now there are many posts and videos on the web, claiming this is a supernatural event. No one has explained why we see an inverted image of the tower here. And if this is just a simple case of light shining through, why doesn't it happen in the mornings as well? Why does it only happen in the afternoons?
The first point is that what we are observing is called a Camera obscura or a pin hole image. This is a natural optical phenomenon. For example, if you cover all the windows of your house, and make one small hole, the light rays will hit the wall, creating an upside down image of what's outside. This is because the light from the top will hit the bottom, and the light from the bottom will hit the top. This has been demonstrated many times in modern physics. However, this is the oldest known pin hole image in India, which was created 1400 years ago. This is exactly why you see an inverted image of the tower on the wall.
Okay, so we see this golden image because of the pin hole effect, but why does it appear only in the afternoons? To understand this, we have to see the tower from the outside. This is the temple tower when we see it from standing outside the temple. I shot this about 4 o clock in the afternoon. You can see that the tower doesn't look golden or shining, but looks rather dim. But if we go inside the temple and see the other side of the same tower, it is shining and looks golden because of the sunlight. This is because the temple is built facing east, and the tower will look dim from the inside during morning hours, because the sun is not shining on the inside face of the tower.
The inside tower starts shining only when the sun moves to west, and makes it look golden. If you go to the dark chamber in the morning, you can still see a very faint image of the tower, but it won't look golden.
So, now you know why we see the mysterious golden tower upside down at Virupaksha temple.