Merch
News
Panchangam
Apps
Downloads
For Teachers
Resources
About
PEOPLE
IDEAS
PLACES
CULTURE
CREATE
STORIES
GAMES
Lonar Crater Lake
लोनार सरोवर
The world's third-largest crater — a meteor's bowl of blue in a green forest
Era
Created ~52,000 years ago
Built by
A meteor impact
Location
Lonar, Buldhana district, Maharashtra
Type
Natural Wonders
“An asteroid left its mark on Bhārat — a perfect blue bowl among the trees.”
— A tribute to Lonar Lake
The Story
About 52,000 years ago, a two-million-tonne meteorite slammed into the Deccan plateau, blasting a bowl 150 metres deep into the dark volcanic basalt. Today that scar holds saline, alkaline water — a startling disc of sky-blue in the middle of a sprawling emerald forest.
The lake is a scientific rarity: the only known hypervelocity impact crater in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth. Its extreme saline-alkaline water hosts microorganisms found nowhere else, which is why astrobiologists study Lonar as a window into how life might survive on other planets.
Around the crater stand temples, most of them in ruins, from the Chalukya era — the finest being the Daitya Sudan temple, which commemorates Vishnu's slaying of the demon Lonasura, the very demon legend says gave Lonar its name. At sunset the crater rim turns gold.
Core Ideas
A Crater on Earth
The world's third-largest impact crater, carved some 52,000 years ago.
Hypervelocity Basalt
The only known meteor crater on Earth formed in basaltic rock.
Water Like Mars
Extreme saline-alkaline water hosts microbes studied for space research.
The Demon's Lake
Legend says Vishnu slew the demon Lonasura here — giving the lake its name.
Temples in the Rim
Chalukya-era temples circle the crater, the Daitya Sudan among them.
Why it matters today
Lonar is where astronomy and mythology share one lake — a meteorite's crater that legend turned into a battlefield of gods and demons, and that modern science studies as a window into other worlds.