A bit of South Asia - a large bit - in northwest London, the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir complex grabs the eye and a place in the record books: At 70 feet high, 75 feet wide, and 195 feet long, it is the largest Hindu temple outside India. Built with 5,000 tons of Bulgarian limestone and Carrara marble on the site of a former truck-servicing center, the temple features intricate carvings created in India. Since it opened in 1995, the temple has been a spiritual home to southeastern England's 280,000 Hindus, testimony to the sizable Indian migration to the seat of their nation's former colonial rulers.

By Courtesy : National Geographic
(American Edition)