Inside New Jersey's Akshardham, World's second-largest Hindu temple
The New Jersey Akshardham temple is possibly the second largest after Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
The 12th-century Angkor Wat Temple Complex, the largest Hindu temple in the World, is spread over 500 acres and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
New Jersey's Akshardham's design includes one main shrine, 12 sub-shrines, nine shikhars (spire-like structures), and nine pyramidal shikhars.
Akshardham houses the largest elliptical dome of traditional stone architecture ever constructed.
The temple is built by an army of more than 12,500 volunteers from across the US in over 12 years from 2011 to 2023.
They were guided by artisan volunteers from India.
Nearly two million cubic feet of stone was used in the construction and was sourced from different sites around the world.
It includes limestone from Bulgaria and Turkey; Marble from Greece, Turkey, and Italy; Granite from India and China, and Sandstone from India.
The Brahma Kund, a traditional Indian stepwell, contains water from over 300 bodies of water from around the world, including the holy rivers of India and all 50 states of the US.