About 160 kilometres from New Delhi towards Ambala lies the city of Kurukshetra — a place of pilgrimage because of its association with the Mahabharata war.

Kurukshetra means the land of Kuru. He was the first king who founded the kingdom here .King Kuru, sacrificed his life for this land. The Puranas sat that Kuru came to the banks of the Saraswati river and was ploughing the area with a plough which was made from a golden chariot. The God of the Suras, Indra , who noticed his efforts, stopped by and asked him what he was doing to which the said that he was founding a land full of virtues.Later, on Lord Vishnu asking him to show the seeds that he would sow, King Kuru put forward his hand which was cut into a thousand pieces with Vishnu’s chakra and sown in the field. King Kuru then had laid down as offering his complete body. Indra was so pleased with the King’s sacrifice that he blessed him with the two boons he asked — that the land would remain holy and be named after him, and that those dying here would go to heaven.
The place served as the abode of the sage Vyasa, the compiler of the Maha bharatha and it was here that Lord Krishna came out with his philosophy of the Bhagawad Gita.

Kurukshetra also has Sheikh Chehli’s mausoleum which is encompassed by a fort in ruins. Within the fort are three mounds covering an area of about five kilometres. It is a strong belief of the locals that the fort at Thanesar was built by Raja Dilip, a descendant of King Kuru, but historians of today opine that it may have been constructed by Harsha Vardhana.

Kurukshetra also has the Brahma Sarovar , a vast tank which is a marvel in itself. Tradition has it that the tank was dug by king Kuru himself much before the epic battle of of Mahabharata. At the entrance of the tank is the temple of Lord Shiva and all along on the island of the tank stand temples and other places of historical importance.