The Eastern Gangas had a big hand in the constuction of the temple of Sri Varaha Lakshminarasimha in Simhachalam. It stands on a hillock about 18 km from Visakhapatnam, the headquarters of the district of the same name. It attracts concourses of pilgrims, including many from Orissa.
The image under worship is self-manifested. It combines the iconographic features of Sri Varaha and Sri Narasimha. The Lord assumed the form of Sri  Narasimha to protect Prahlada, his devotee, in the story every Hindu knows. So fierce was He when killing the demon that the image is always, except for a single day covered with sandal paste. The original shape is revealed only on the third day of Vaisakha (April-May) in a ritual called the "Chandana Visarjana". For the rest of the year the image looks like a Linga covered with sandal paste.

The only temple in the entire country that is dedicated to Lord Vishnu in His incarnation of a tortoise stands in Srikumam, 19 km from Srikakulam. A great Centre of piligrimage, its epigraphically history begins in the twelfth century.