Waves from the Bay of Bengal lap at the 40-foot-wide (12-meter-wide) stone embankment surrounding the Shore Temples in Mahabalipuram, a seaside town in Tamil Nadu, India. These seventh and eighth century Dravidian relics with Buddhist elements are temples to the Hindu gods Vishnu and Shiva. The monuments in Mahabalipuram were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the National Geographic book, Our World’s Heritage, 1986)