A rocky ridge reaching a height of 250 meters and a silhouette visible from 50 kilometers around are the two details that immediately intrigue anyone approaching Rajasthan, in the Baran district, approximately 200 kilometers south of Jaipur. There stands a giant basin that is not natural in the usual sense. No volcanic cone, no meander carved patiently by a river: what nature has shaped here belongs to a different story, much more violent and much older than one might imagine at first glance. The Ramgarh crater in Rajasthan measures approximately 4 kilometers in diameter and was formed in Neoproterozoic sandstone. It was the geophysicist A.R. Crawford who demonstrated in 1970, using impact craters, the meteorite origin of the basin. At the center of the crater is the Bhand Devra temple, dedicated to Shiva and built in the 10th century, adorned with sculptures of apsaras and erotic scenes. Inside this vast depression, the Parvati river has carved its way through a natural breach, giving rise to a lake and a wetland area that contrast with the relative aridity of the surrounding Rajasthani landscape. This improbable mixture of rugged terrain and peaceful water source gives the site a unique geological identity. Geologically, the structure is located in sandstone dating from the Neoproterozoic, at the western end of the Vindhya range. An ancient rock, therefore, which has preserved in its strata the traces of an event whose origin would remain a mystery for a long time. Neither volcano nor river: the geological enigma that has long intrigued scientists. Faced with such a formation, the first hypothesis that naturally comes to mind is that of volcanism. After all, a circular basin surrounded by an elevated rim is exactly the description of a caldera. However, no traces of lava flow or characteristic volcanic rock have ever been identified on the site. Fluvial erosion seemed just as unconvincing: the Parvati does indeed cross the crater, but it did not create it, it simply infiltrated it after the fact, taking advantage of an existing breach in the rim. It was the British geologist Frederick Richard Mallet, affiliated with the Geological Survey of India, who made the first scientific visit to the site. A little later, Rai Bahadur Kishan Singh Rawat carried out the first detailed mapping of the area. But for several decades, the exact origin of this depression remained a point of inquiry for specialists, who struggled to explain such a regular geometry without resorting to a classical volcanic or erosive phenomenon. The answer finally came in 1970, thanks to the geophysicist A.R. Crawford, from the Australian National University. By closely examining the composition of the subsurface, he identified two decisive clues: a brecciated rock, that is, fragmented and resolidified under the effect of extreme pressure, and especially impact craters, these rock structures in the shape of a fan that only form under the effect of a shock wave of colossal violence. This type of geological mark constitutes a true signature: it is found nowhere else but on meteorite impact sites. In other words, neither the fire of the earth's depths nor the millennial patience of a river have carved this basin. It was a celestial body, which came crashing here with energy difficult to imagine, that literally fractured the rock and raised this rim visible from dozens of kilometers. A 10th-century temple erected in the heart of cosmic chaos. This is surely the most striking detail of this entire story: at the exact center of this ancient scene of devastation, humans chose to build a place of worship.