Chand Baori sits in the village of Abhaneri in Rajasthan, India, and dates to the 8th and 9th centuries under Raja Chanda of the local Nikumbha dynasty. It drops 30 meters, about 100 feet or 13 stories, into the ground as an inverted pyramid of some 3,500 narrow steps in symmetrical double flights on three sides. The terraces act as retaining walls against the surrounding earth and let hundreds of people reach the water at any level through the dry season and the monsoon. The wide mouth catches scarce rain while the narrow bottom limits the surface exposed to the sun. Hot air rises out and cool air settles, so the bottom stays five to six degrees Celsius cooler than the surface, which explains the royal pavilion and resting room built on one side.

The well formed a spiritual complex with the adjoining Harshat Mata temple, dedicated to the goddess of joy, where pilgrims drank, washed, and rested. Mahmud of Ghazni’s forces damaged the temple in the 11th century and the Mughals later smashed the well’s sculptures, but the stairs survived because every army needed the water. Scholar Morna Livingston notes two building periods fused together: the plain 8th century base and ornate upper palace additions by later Chauhan rulers, built with arches of stacked, overlapping flat stones. The pillared northern side still holds shrines to Ganesha and Mahishasura Mardini, plus a reclining Vishnu on the cosmic ocean. Filmmakers came for Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Paheli, Bhoomi, and Tarsem Singh’s The Fall.

• A separate room, the Andheri Ujala, set aside for the heavy work of drawing water with pulleys
• Scattered pillars and carved fragments now gathered in the arcades by the Archaeological Survey of India
• A local legend of a secret tunnel running from Abhaneri all the way to the city of Dausa
• Why The Dark Knight Rises prison pit was inspired by Chand Baori but filmed on a built set
• How the stepped design turned a water source into a cooled town square and pilgrim refuge