Auroville

Auroville was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa, known as the Mother, as a township intended to belong to humanity as a whole rather than any nation, with a charter read at an inauguration where young people from over a hundred countries poured soil from their homelands into an urn. Around three thousand people from many nationalities live there. At its centre stands the Matrimandir, a flattened golden sphere thirty-six metres across on concrete supports, containing a chamber with a seventy-centimetre crystal onto which a heliostat directs a beam of sunlight. The land around it, once eroded plateau, has been reforested over decades.

What you actually see

• The Matrimandir - a golden sphere with a crystal chamber inside.
• The viewing point - the standard distant view across the gardens.
• The reforested land - decades of planting on formerly eroded plateau.
• The community - workshops, farms and buildings across the township.

When to go

October to March; the Matrimandir inner chamber requires booking days in advance and slots are limited, with a separate free viewing point available on the same day.

Honest expectations

Casual visitors see the sphere from a distance; entering the chamber needs advance booking and is for silent concentration, not sightseeing. The township is a working community, not an attraction, and much is not open. Governance disputes have been ongoing.

Nearby

Puducherry lies south; the coast is east.