The Somnath temple, Prabhas Patan, Gujarat.

The Somnath temple or Deo Patan, is located in Prabhas Patan, Veraval in Gujarat. Reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by several Muslim invaders and it is unclear when the first version of the Somnath temple was built.

The Somnath temple was actively studied by colonial era historians and archaeologists in the 19th- and early 20th-century, when its ruins illustrated a historic Hindu temple in the process of being converted into an Islamic mosque. After India's independence, those ruins were demolished and the present Somnath temple was reconstructed in the Māru-Gurjara style of Hindu temple architecture.

The Somnath temple is located close to the ancient trading port of Veraval, one of three in Gujarat from where Indian merchants departed to trade goods. The 11th-century Persian historian Al-Biruni states that Somnath has become so famous because "it was the harbor for seafaring people, and a station for those who went to and fro between Sufala in the country of Zanj (east Africa) and China".

Somnath means "Lord of the Soma" or "moon". The site is also called as Prabhasa. Somnath temple has been a jyotirlinga site and a holy place of pilgrimage. It is one of five most revered sites on the seacoast of India, along with the nearby Dvaraka in Gujarat, Puri in Odisha, Rameshvaram and Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. The Somnath temple is not mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. The "Prabhasa-Pattana" site of Somnath is mentioned in ancient texts.