The Saivaite temples of Srisailam, celebrated in devotion, tradition and history from the second century A.D., stand on a plateau on the top of a hill named Srisailam, Sriparvata or Srigiri, in the Nallamalai ranges in Kurnool district.  The Lord, Mallikarjuna, and His Consort, Bhramaramba, are held in great veneration by countless devotees.

A distinctive feature of the temples is that they are located in a large prakara enclosed by sculptured walls. In fact, the temple area looks like a fort, The walls are 8.5 m high and, north to south 183 m long and, east to west 152 m broad . They are made of huge blocks of stone revetted to each other. There are sculptures in Profusion on the northern, eastern and southern walls, and fewer ones on the western.

There are five regular rows of sculpture on the walls from above the base. The first contains figures of the elephant in many postures. The next has reliefs of the horse, the warrior, the hunter and the dancer. The next three are full of superb sculpture representing Deities and scenes from Saivaite traditions. Above these there are occasional reliefs of Deities, birds and animals. On the copings of the walls are Lingas, nandis, the lion, the swan. "from a distance these walls look like a well arranged picture gallery".

The earliest recorded reference to the Srisailam region occures in a Satavahana inscription in an excavated shrine in Nashik, in Maharashtra. It belongs to the second century A.D. In the fourth a queen of the Vakataka dynasty, which had succeeded the Satavahanas in a part of the Deccan, was a great devotee of Lord Mallikarjuna of Srisailam. Most of the dynasties that followed showered gifts on the Srisailam temples. As late as the fourteenth century a Kakatiya king and queen performed the spectacular ceremony in the Mallikarjuna temple of weighing themselves against precious objects, which were distributed among the poor and deserving. A king of Kondavidu,  who followed the Kakatiyas, constructed steps on the Srisailam hill and placed golden pinnacles on the Vimana of the Mallikarjuna temple.

Krishnadeva made many valuable gifts to the temple and some of his officers built additions to it. But perhaps the most striking incident in the history of the temples is the visit of Shivaji in 1674. He was so deeply moved that he attempted to take his life and was prevented with great difficulty. He is said to have built one of the gopuras. He left behind a small contingent of Maratha soldiers to defend the temples. When some Muslims attempted to attack them, these resisted them to the last man. To this day descendants of these brave men come to celebrate a festival in their honour.

The Lord and the hill figure prominently in the devotional literature of no less than four languages, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil. An incident here concerning Arjuna, in the "Mahabharatha", is sculptured on the prakara walls.

All the shrines except one stand in a group within the prakara walls. The exception, that of the Goddess, is located a little farther away. Four gopuras pierce the walls in the four directions. Only the base of the western tower has survived, the other parts have fallen down. All the three other gopuras are of Vijayanagar times. The most striking is the northern, later named after Shivaji. It contains some superb panel reliefs.

The structures  within the compound were built from time to time and also repaired as occasion offered. The main temple of Lord Mallikarjuna stands near a mandapa named the Virasiromani. The mukhamandapa of the temple was built in 1405. The vimana, in a peculiar style, belongs to the tenth century. There are innumerable shrines around this temple and also a few pillared verandahs. Some of these contains fine sculptures.

The shrine of the Goddess stands at a distance from all these. It seems to have been reconstructed in the sixteenth century. On the way there are many shrines. One of these belongs to the eighth century. Access is by a flight of steps.

A part of the Srisailam pilgrimage is a visit to the Patalaganga in order to bathe there. Many pilgrims carry the water uphill in order to bathe the icon of Lord Mallikarjuna. The pathway is 4 km long and on either sides there are many shrines. One of them is the temple of Umamehasvara, considered artistically the finest in Srisailam. It is in the late Vijaynagar style and contains some splendid sculpture. It should be dated to the six-teenth century on the basis of the similarity of style with Venkataramana temple of Tadpatri.

Perhaps the oldest structure on Srisailam is the Vriddha Mallikarjuna, or the Old Mallikarjuna temple. This is to be ascribed to the seventh century. It stands near the Mallikarjuna temple.