Fact Check: Temple in viral image is from Varanasi, not Ayodhya

Hyderabad: A picture of a semi constructed temple is viral on social media. Users claim that it is a 5000-year-old temple that was found during a road widening exercise in Ayodhya.

"This is told to be 5,000 years old temple discovered while road widening in Ayodhya - 'The Ram Janma Bhoomi'. Locals had built a house upon this beautiful temple which 'Covered' the temple all this while. Sources say many more temples will be uncovered in coming days (sic)," reads the claim

This is told to be 5000 years old temple dis"Covered" while road widening in Ayodhya - "The Ram Janma Bhoomi". Locals had built house upon this beautiful temple which "Covered" the temple all these while. Sources say many more temples will be uncovered in coming days. #JaiSriRam pic.twitter.com/xcZxg5tVlJ

— Manoj (@Nixachar) June 13, 2020

Click here to view the archive and here for a similar claim.

FACT CHECK:

The claim that this image represents a 5,000-year-old temple that was found during a road widening exercise in Ayodhya is false. It is from the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project site in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found a tweet that carried the same image. However, in the comments, it was mentioned that this image is from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

Excavations in Varanasi (India)
for widening of the road have
found dozens of ancient temples hidden by people's
illegally constructed houses.. The temples were
completely covered by the house construction, even from
above, hiding their existence.

— सुनने की क्षमता रखिये❕ (@Mananiy_Sadasya) December 18, 2020

Using this information, we performed a keyword search and found a similar image in a report by Amar Ujala from January 2020. It states that this picture is from the construction site of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project in Varanasi.

Below is a picture comparison of the images. In both these images we can notice two structures and the same background.

Evidently, it is clear that the claim is false and that the temple is from Varanasi, not Ayodhya.