Temple of Kanarug, The sun temple at Konarak is one of the most famous of all India's temples, and considered a supreme achievement of Oriya architecture. Europeans in Fergusson's time knew it as the Black Pagoda, a reference to deserted sites that locals described as kala, meaning empty. Believed to have been built in the mid-13th century by Narasimhadeva of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, the temple lapsed into ruin when the 227 feet high main tower, collapsed.