Gudguda, one of the most beautiful Picnic Spot. Though Gudguda comes under Sambalpur District, Many peoples flock this place from neighboring towns like Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and even Rourkela too. From Jharsuguda, it takes only 1.5 hours to reach to the spot. The Roads are fantastic after you cross Kolabira Village. Journey to this place is very pleasant. You can hardly find any vehicles after Kolabira Village. This place is fully covered with dense forest. As soon as you are about to enter the spot, you can find many Mango and Lichi Orchards on both side of the roads. You can also hear chirping of birds, gushing sound of waterfall etc. You will love this place as it is a very peaceful place to spend your day away from your hectic and busy life. Let us tell you that before entering to the exact spot you need to cross a small waterfall, which can easily be crossed if you have any four wheeler. Maruti 800 and Maruti Van will have little difficulty in crossing this in Moonson time. This Place has three Step by step waterfalls, these Waterfall have been beautifully carved themselves through the rocks. This Place is also good for Mountain Trekking. Do not forget to carry Trekking shoes along with you whenever you plan to visit this place. Let us mention one more thing that the water flowing in this falls is extremely chilly, one of the main reason is because waters are hardly expose onsun raysas it is covered on all sides. Rest you can easily know more about the spot once you see the Photographs taken in that spot.

Maa Ghanteswari Temple is one of the most holiest and beautiful place in Sambalpur. As the name indicates, there are bells (Ghanti) everywhere. People offer bell to Maa after their the fulfillment of their wishes. A large number of pilgrims visit this place everyday from acrooss the state. This is treated as Heart of Chipilima (a beautiful picnic spot). The specialty of this temple area is, thousands of bells hanging all around, the only place of its kind in Orissa. Maa Ghanteswari Temple is located at 33 kms south-west of Sambalpur and on the bank of river Mahanadi. It was playing an important role for navigation in the past. It was called a light house without light. The place got its name from goddess Ghanteswari. Earlier there were some big size bells on this spot and with the help of wind those were creating enormous sound which made the navigators aware of this trechorous spot and they never came near it. This area being the conglomeration of three streams of water of river Mahanadi, the water current here is very trechorous forming a whirlpool. Due to this many boats were drowned while nearing this spot. Here the wind blows quite heavily and with the help of it the bells were producing sound. Now after the construction of Hirakud dam, this spot became safer.

A village in the Sambalpur Subdivision, situated on the left bank of the Mahanadi, 23 kms. south of Sambalpur. The village contains the Leaning temple dedicated to Lord Siva, which was built in the reign of Baliar Singh, the fifth Raja of Sambalpur. The worship of Siva is said to have been initiated by a milkman(Gauda), who daily crossed the Mahanadi to a place on the bank where the underlying rock croped out. Here he daily offered his dole of milk, which was at once drunk up by the rock, and this miraculous circumstance led to enquiries, which ended in the construction of the present temple. Huma is a place of pilgrimage, and is also visited by strangers out of curosity to see the different kind of fish in the river. A great fair takes place at the foothill in March every year on the occasion of Sivratri. The presiding diety is Bimaleswar Siva. The special type of fish found here are called as Kudo fish. They are said to be so tame that they will eat sweets and other foods from the hands of those who bathe close to the temple. During auspicious days they are called by their names and given the prasad of the God. Here nobody tries to catch them as they are believed to be the assets of the God. Now about the main point of attraction i.e. the tilted structure of temple. From the investigation and interviews performed by our team, nobody able to give satisfying reply. The surprising thing is, the main temple tilted to one direction and other small temples tilted to some other direction. And within the temple complex i.e. within the boundaries of temple, everything found to be in tilted condition including the boundaries. Now again the angle of inclination is not changed since last 40/50 years as said by the villagers and priests. However the structure is tilted may be due to some geological reason, may be the earth crust is un-even in structure. About the inclination, its not possible to judge whether the angle is in a increasing trend or not. For that some sort of measurement mechanism should be given to analyse it very correctly as it is done in leaning tower of Pissa.

Exists in one of the extreme point of Hirakud Reservoir, a Natural wonder. It is near to Kumarbandh village of Belpahar-Banharpali range which is about 90 kms from Sambalpur town. But if someone travels through a motor lunch from Hirakud dam it is quite nearer about 10 kms in the river. The island is nothing but a sub-merged hill and prior to Hirakud Dam construction, was a developed village. The specialty about the island is the inhabitants, only comprises of cattle group of animals. During the resettlement period, villagers left some of their cows and bulls and when the dam construction is over the cattle settled down on the hill-top. By the passage of time the nearby area filled up with the reservoir water and gave the shape of the hill-top looks like an island. Being away from mankind, the cattle are wild in nature and they never allow themselves to become the prey of human-beings. As they spend whole of their life on the hill filled up with dense forest, their shape and size are quite bigger in comparison to the normal cattle. All are of white colour except a very few. Very swift like other wild animals. People living adjacent to the island sometime try to catch them, but rarely succeed in capturing those animals. We always hear about the cattle as the pet animals, but here is a contradiction, they can be also wild in nature. The responsible factor being the surrounding atmosphere.

Only 15 kms. north of Sambalpur, the longest dam of the world stands in its lone majesty across the great river Mahanadi, which drains an area of 1,33,090 Sq.Kms., more than twice the area of Shrilanka. The bulk of Hirakud dam contains earth, concrete and masonry materials sufficient to make a road 8 metres wide and pave it from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and Amritsar to Dibrugarh in Assam. From horizon to horizon the resorvoir forms the largest artificial lake in Asia with an area of 746 Sq.Kms. and a shore line over 640 Kms. A twenty-one Kilometres drive on the dyke offers a unique experience of calm serenity and majesty of nature. One can enjoy the sight of mighty Hirakud dam and the fantastic expanse of water from the top of the revolving minarate called Gandhi Minar.

The old township of Sambalpur is a land of temples – the temples of Liakhai, Madanmohan, Satyabadi, Bariha, Brahampura, Dadhibamana, Timini and Gopalji Revals the influence of Vaishnava tradition in Sambalpur. Also the people are worshippers of both Shiva and Shakti. The Shiva Temple atop Budharaja Hills, Maneswar Shiva Temple at Maneswar, Gupteswar, Balunkeswar, Loknath alongwith the temples of the Goddess Samaleswari, Pataneswari, Batmangala, Budhimaa, Mahamayi etc. symbolize the co-exsistence of the Shiva and Shakti. The silent leaning temple of Huma challenges the architectural technique of the leaning tower of Pisa. The two Mosques and the two Churches in the Town speak of the secular outlook of the people of Sambalpur.

Shree Shree Samaleswari, the presiding deity of Sambalpur, is a strong religious force in western part of Orissa and Chhattisgarh state of India. On the bank of the river Mahanadi the mother goddess Samaleswari is worshipped from ancient times as Jagatjanani, Adishakti, Mahalaxmi and Mahasaraswati. The region in which the temple is situated has a rich cultural heritage. Sambalpur region is popularly known as Hirakhanda from ancient times. Ptolemy has described the place as Sambalak, Acording to Tavernir, the French traveller, and Edward Gibbon, the English historian, diamonds were exported to Rome from Sambalpur