Khajuraho was one time large city of Central India, covering about eight square miles. Its old name, as per inscriptions was Khajuravahaka. In some ancient books, it was mentioned by the name of Khajuravatika, Khajurapura or Khajjinpura. From all these names we can conclude that this region must be having lot of Khajur (date) trees which became identity of this region. It was Abu Rihan, who mentioned about this place while accompanying Mahmud of Ghazni in his campaign against Kalinjar. Its next information comes from Ibn Batuta, who visited this place in 1335 AD, during rule of Muhammad Shah Tuglaq and mentioned it as "Khajura". Till this period, majority of Khajuraho temples were erected and Chandela rule in Jejakabhukti was on down-fall. This this period, they had shifted their capital, from Khajuraho to Mahoba and were loosing their territories to new emerging powers like Kalchuris, Baghels etc.
At one point of time, 85 temples were present in Khajuraho and it was great religious center where grand Shivaratri festival helds, attended by large number of nearby citizens, and peoples from outside the kingdom. When Chandela kingdom was shifted from Khajuraho to Mahoba, for security reasons as it was more safe, Khajuraho became ignored and abandoned town. With shift of capital, local citizen also find it better to shift to other safe place as presence of temples and religious activities may attract muslim forces to attack and demolish this place. Majority of temples fall prey of time and neglect and many were destroyed in military expeditions by Muslim forces like Sikandar Lodi in 1494-95. This result into long period negligence and no-care of temples. All this resulted in to development of bushes and trees that covered the region and forgotten by people.
It was British India army Captain T.S. Burt, who rediscovered Khajuraho temples in year 1838 and re-introduced it to the world. Till that time around 22 temples were left and these surviving temples were divided three groups i.e. Western Group of temples, Eastern Group of Temples and Southern Group of Temples. In below given table, we have listed some of the most prominent temples, visited by tourists.
