Tirumala

The trip to Tirumala, the temple of Lord Venkatesa, at Tirupathi. Sometime last year we decided to take the stairway that leads to the temple on the hill top.
Here are a series of pics.
The stretch is about 9km and there are over 4,000 steps. In the intial 3 km, the steepest part, there are more than 2,500 steps and the middle section flattens out a bit - not by much - and that is another 500 or so steps in which you cover about 4 km and that includes about 1.5 km along the roadway. The final stretch is again as steep as the initial stretch.
Actually, it is a great experience.
One amazing feature was that some pilgrims were not just climbing the stairs but stopping on each one to smear turmeric and kumkum and light camphor.