Khajuraho was, for many centuries, a small obscure village in central India; in 1838 a British army engineer, captain T S Burt, visited the area and rediscovered an extraordinary group of temples built between the 10th and 12th centuries. Khajuraho is situated in Madhya Pradesh, south of the gangetic plain and north of the rising Deccan plateau. The expansive landscape of the state is cradled by the Vindhya and Satpura hill ranges and watered by large rivers, the Narmada and Chambal.