🛕 Sikri Mata Temple

The Sikri Mata Temple, officially known as the Shri Mahamaya Devi Temple, is a Hindu temple at Sikri Khurd village, Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India. The temple was built in the 15th century by Jalim Giri Baba and his family, who belonged to the Goswami community of the village. Its administration was taken over from the descendants of Giri Baba by the gram panchayat in 1977. Dedicated to the goddess Sikri, who is believed to be an incarnation of Durga, the temple attracts large gatherings of visitors during the biannual festival of Navaratri. During the Chaitra month of Navaratri, marking the beginning of a new year on the Hindu calendar, a large historical fair is organised for nine days. The fair was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the first time since 1918. There is a banyan tree on the temple premises from which more than 130 revolutionaries were hanged to death during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.