Hampi Archaeological Museum

Jump back in time into the era of the glorious Vijayanagar Empire and witness the remains of Hampi by visiting the small but significant Archaeological Museum located at a small town of Kamlapur in the Bellary district of Karnataka and gain an insight about the bygone eras of our ancient civilization.

About the Museum

The popular ruins of Hampi and Vijayanagar Empire are housed inside the Archaeological Museum at Kamalapura, a small town in the Bellary district in Karnataka. Located within the remains of the old city of Vijayanagar, the Archaeological Museum at Kamalapura is not a massive museum but is a significant place that preserves and displays the relics and artifacts related to the Vijayanagar Empire and its ruins.

Established in 1972, the museum is administered by the Archaeological Survey of India and seizes the beauty of the departed era of Hampi in a fascinating and pleasant manner. Before the construction of the contemporary building of the museum, some of the preservation work has already been done by the British officers, who collected numerous sculptures, relics, statues, and artifacts from the remnants of Hampi and other places in the vicinity to store them in elephant stables. When the museum was finally built, all the preserved items were relocated from the elephant stables to the new museum.

Apart from a vibrant collection of sculptures, the treasure trove of the museum has many architectural pieces, artifacts, relics, coins, tools, miniature paintings, ivory items, copper plates, and various other articles from the era of the Vijayanagar Empire. The exhibits in the museum are showcased in 4 different sections. The first section displays a scaled model of the topography of the complete region of Hampi including the monuments and temples. The Second section illustrates a large assortment of sculptures and idols from the Hampi ruins. The Third section contains an impressive collection of arms, coinage, tools, metal objects, and other popular artifacts during the rule of the Vijayanagar Empire. The last and the Fourth section contains various antiquities dating back to the prehistoric and proto-historic eras displaying the oldest exhibits of the museum.