Somanatha Temple

Somanatha Temple is aHindu temple, located inPrabhas Patan,Veraval, inGujarat,India. It is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites, orTirtha KshetraforHindusand is the first among the twelvejyotirlingashrines of Shiva.[1]The date of construction of the earliest Somnath temple remains uncertain, with estimates varying between the early centuries of the 1st millennium and about the 9th century CE.[2][3]Various texts, including theMahabharataandBhagavata Purana, mention atirtha(pilgrimage site) at Prabhas Patan on the coastline of Saurashtra, where the later temple would eventually be built, but archaeology has not found traces of an early temple, though there was a settlement there.