Amarnath Temple

Amarnath Temple is a Hindu shrine located in the Pahalgam tehsil of Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is a cave situated at an altitude of 3,888 m (12,756 ft), about 72 km from Anantnag, the district headquarters, 141 km (88 mi) from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, accessible via either Sonamarg or Pahalgam The cave, located in the Sind Valley, is surrounded by glaciers and snow-covered mountains and remains inaccesssible for most of the year, opening to pilgrims only for a brief period in summer. In 1989, pilgrims numbered between 12,000 and 30,000. In 2011, the number reached a peak of over 6.3 lakh (630,000). In 2018, it stood at 2.85 lakh (285,000). The annual pilgrimage season varies between 20 and 60 days. The Amarnath cave, abode of the Mahamaya Shakti Pitha, is one of the 51 Shakti Pithas, the temples of the Indian subcontinent that commemorate the supposed location of the fallen body parts of the Hindu deity Sati.