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| - Fact Check: This is not a 5,000-year-old temple discovered during road widening in Ayodhya
An image of a temple amid heaps of rubbles and old buildings is being shared on social media with the claim that it is a 5,000-year-old temple discovered during a road widening exercise in the holy town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
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India Today Fact Check
This is the image of Chandragupt Mahadev temple in Varanasi which is being restored under the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project.
An image of a temple amid heaps of rubbles and old buildings is being shared on social media with the claim that it is a 5,000-year-old temple discovered during a road widening exercise in the holy town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
The caption along with the picture says: This is told to be 5000 years old temple dis"Covered" while road widening in Ayodhya - "The Ram Janma Bhoomi". Locals had built house upon this beautiful temple which "Covered" the temple all these while. Sources say many more temples will be uncovered in coming days. #JaiSriRam Good news : the renovation of the Temples has been started.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. The image is of the Chandragupt Mahadev temple which is being restored under the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project in UP's Varanasi.
Similar claims have been circulating on social media since June this year. The archived versions of some posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA probe
With the help of reverse image search, we found a similar picture of the same temple carried by several news reports on the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 8, 2019, had laid the foundation for the project. Upon completion, it will change the look of the ancient holy city of Varanasi, and develop and beautify areas around the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
We found an image similar to the picture in circulation carried by "Zee News", "Patrika" and "Amar Ujala" along with reports on the project.
Here is a comparison of the viral image with the image carried by "Zee News".
AFWA then contacted Sunil Verma, CEO of Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust. Verma confirmed to us that the temple seen in the viral image is Chandragupt Mahadev temple, which is part of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project.
"This picture is from Varanasi and not Ayodhya. It is the Chandragupt Mahadev temple near Kashi Vishwanath temple. But the picture must be at least six months old. The Chandragupt Mahadev temple is one of the temples being restored as part of the corridor project. This temple is not more than 300 years old," Verma said. He also shared with us a recent image of the same site that can be seen below.
According to a report published by "Financial Express" on December 23, 2019, several ancient temples have come to light during the cleaning work for the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project. Chandragupt Mahadev temple is one of the 30 major temples which will be restored to its former glory under the project.
Hence, it is clear that the image in question is of a temple in Varanasi, and the claim that it was discovered during a road widening exercise in Ayodhya is wrong.
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