The Station Road is the main road in Badami; the architectural complex lies to the east of it. There are four sets of caves. The oldest, Cave 1, has stunning carvings of Shiva in his Nataraja avatar, dancing the apocalyptic tandava. There are also carvings of the god in the Ardhanarishvara form where he is depicted as half man-half woman, the woman half representing his wife Parvati. Yet another carving is of Harihara, the right half of this figure depicts Shiva - the Destroyer and the left, Vishnu - the Preserver. Caves 2 and 3 are dedicated entirely to Vishnu, whereas Cave 4 is has an image of the Jain tirthankara, Adinath.
Other sites of note are the 5th century Agastyatirtha Tank, the fort and the Bhutanath temples. The local archaeological museum has some fine specimens of carvings from the area including a collection of Lajja-Gauri images. The museum is open from 10 am to 5 pm every day except Friday.
