Gopuram
The monumental gateway tower at the entrance of a Dravidian Hindu temple's enclosure wall — the dominant visual feature of major South Indian temple complexes.
The gopuram is the gateway tower in the enclosure wall (prakaram) of a South Indian Dravidian Hindu temple. It marks the entrance to the temple precinct and, in the Vijayanagara and Nayak periods, grew to become the dominant visual element of the entire complex.
Gopurams are typically rectangular in plan, with a pyramidal superstructure that builds up in diminishing storeys to a crowning barrel-vault form topped by a finial (kalasha). The exterior surfaces are covered with sculptural programmes — in granite for earlier Chola and Pallava gopurams, in polychrome lime stucco for Nayak-period towers.
For documentation, gopurams present specific challenges: heights of 30–70 m for major examples; sculptural density of thousands of individual figures; and the need for drone survey to access the upper storeys that are inaccessible from the ground.