Mahmud of Ghazni raids Somnath temple

January 1026

The Ghaznavid sultan led a camel army across the Thar Desert to Gujarat's coast and stormed the fabulously wealthy Shiva temple at Somnath, where his soldiers shattered the great lingam and carried away treasure that staggered even his own chroniclers. The destruction became the most enduring symbol of Ghaznavid iconoclasm and a wound in Hindu collective memory that persists today.