Mekedatu is about 109km from Mysuru and 95km from Bengaluru. About 3.5 kilometers downstream, the river Kaveri flows through a deep gorge so narrow that one would think that a goat can leap and cross it (‘Mekedatu’ means, ‘goat’s leap’ in Kannada). There is a lot of mythological significance also to this place. As per one version, the goat (meke) that is believed to have lept across the Kaveri was Lord Shiva in disguise. On both rocky precipices of the gorge, one can find strange gigantic holes, whose shapes resemble goats’ hooves, though several times larger. Only heavenly (or Godly) goats can mark their ‘footprints’ in such hard rocks
