Nepal: The Rajput Moghul-style Janaki Temple, Janakpur (1998)

Janakpur's focal point is the magnificent Janaki Mandir, a temple devoted to Sita, the divine heroine of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The Indian sage Valmiki supposedly wrote the Ramayana - The Story of Rama - sometime between 500 and 100 BC. This major epic, some 48,000 lines long, is also well known in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The temple was built in 1911 by the Rani of Tikamagarh (Central India), at a cost of 900,000 Rupees - in those days a dizzying amount of money. In local parlance, the temple is also called Nau Lakh Mandir or 'Temple of 900,000 Rupees'. In 1657, a golden statue of the Goddess Sita was found at the very spot, and Sita is also said to have lived there - indeed, another name for Sita is Janaki.