Located in Prabhas Patan near Veraval, also known as Somnath, a coastal city along the Arabian Sea in Gujarat, the Somnath Temple is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites for the Hindus, regarded as the first among the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Lord Shiva. Although the specific name of the Somnath temple is not mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts, the name of Prabhas as a pilgrimage site finds its reference in the Vana Parva of the Hindu epic of Mahabharata, and also in the Sanskrit text of Bhagabat Purana. Legend says, Soma, the Moon god married the 27 daughters of Prajapati Daksha, but he earned the wrath of his father-in-law, as he became deeply infatuated with Rohini, and seemingly neglected his other 26 wives. However, his undue partiality towards Rohini earned the wrath of Daksha and raged by the sad condition of his other daughters, he cursed Soma to lose his radiance and the power to illuminate, as a result of which the world fell into darkness. During that time, on the advice of Lord Brahma, Soma, following a bath in the Saraswati River, performed a long and intense penance to Lord Shiva at Triveni Sangam in Prabhas Kshetra, the confluence of three rivers, Kapila, Hiran, and Saraswati, to regain his lustre, and the power to illuminate. Pleased by his devotion, Lord Shiva mitigated the curse, allowing him to grow for 15 days and wane for the next 15 days, and in gratitude for saving him from the extremities of the curse, Soma built the first temple in Prabhas, and named it Somnath, which stands for the Lord of the moon or Protector of the Moon God, Lord Shiva.

It is widely believed that there was a temple during ancient times, but despite different attempts, the archaeologists have not found traces of an early temple, though there was a settlement there. It is not very clear when the first version of the Somnath temple was built, but it is estimated that the original Somnath temple was built between the early centuries of the 1st millennium and about the 9th century BC. Nevertheless, the temple was reconstructed several times in the past due to the repeated attacks and the resulting severe damage and destruction by multiple Muslim invaders and rulers, notably starting with an attack by Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Sabuktigin, usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni, the Sultan of Empire of Ghazni, in January 1026, when according to historian Cynthia Talbot, thousands of devotees lost their lives in trying to stop Mahmud during his sack of Somnath temple.

After the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni, the army of Alauddin Khaliji, led by Ulugh Khan, again sacked the Somnath temple during their invasion of Gujarat in 1299, after which the temple was rebuilt by Mahipala I, the king of Saurashtra in 1308 and the lingam was subsequently installed by his son sometime between 1331 and 1351. Thereafter, the Muslim invaders plundered, desecrated and destroyed the temple several times, beginning with the attack of Zafar Khan, the last governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate, who destroyed the temple for the third time in 1395, Mahmud Begada, the Sultan of Gujarat desecrated it in 1451, and the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb ordered its destruction and conversion into a mosque again in 1706, which seem to have been carried out, though very little effort seems to have been put into the conversion. Much later, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, historians and archaeologists studied the Somnath temple, as its ruins clearly indicated the process of a historic Hindu temple turning into an Islamic mosque.

It was widely believed that the sandalwood gates of Somnath temple were plundered by Mahmud of Ghazni, and were subsequently attached to his tomb. In 1842, based on local belief, the then Governor-General Lord Ellenborough instructed the British army returning from Afghanistan to bring back those gates of Somnath temple from the tomb in Afghanistan. However, on arrival, it was found that the gates were made of Deodar wood not of sandalwood, and they were not made in Gujarati style. Since then, gates have remained in the arsenal store-room of the Agra Fort. However, a question was raised in the British House of Commons in 1843, about the gates and the justification of Ellenbourough's role in the matter.

After the independence of India in 1947, when Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Deputy Prime Minister of India visited Junagadh on 12 November 1947, he ordered the reconstruction of the temple, and accordingly, the ruins were pulled down in October 1950, while the mosque present at that site was shifted a few kilometres away. Finally, the current structure of the temple, built on the original site of the ancient temple, considered the seventh reconstruction, was inaugurated on 11 May 1951, the auspicious day of Vaishakh Shukla Panchami, by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, although the overall construction was completed in the 1960s.

Reconstructed in its current form in 1951, the present Somnath temple, a two-level temple, reflecting a prominent example of the Māru-Gurjara style of architecture, also known as Chaulukya or Solanki style of Hindu temple architecture, a subtype of Nagara architecture, is primarily built of honey-colourd sandstone, with a complex interlocking system without mortar. Like many other Hindu temples, it features tall, curvilinear spires, known as shikharas, with the main spire rising to a height of about 155 feet (around 50 m), crowned with a 10-ton golden Kalash, or pitcher, along with a 27-foot-tall flag pole, locally known as Dhwajadand. The intricately carved three-level temple comprises a Natamandira or the dancing hall, used for performing dance, dedicated to the deity, a huge pillared hall, featuring intricate carvings of scenes from Hindu epics, used for religious gatherings, and known as Shabha Mandap or Assembly Hall, and the Garbhagriha, the sanctum, housing the Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva. The exterior of the temple is adorned with the newly created relief panels, along with a few old ones, recovered from the previous temple, most of which are mutilated and several images in those panels are difficult to identify. Apart from the temple, the complex contains a step-tank, known as Surya-kund, surrounded by small shrines, and the Baan Stambh or Arrow Pillar, located on the sea-facing wall, indicating a direct unobstructed sea line straight to Antarctica, a Tourist Facilitation Centre where visitors can enjoy a comfortable stay, and also a museum displaying several artefacts related to the temple.

The Somnath Temple in Veraval celebrates several Hindu festivals, which include Mahashivaratri, Kartik Purnima, Navaratri and Diwali, when the temple is adorned with numerous diyas or oil lamps, creating a spectacular, divine atmosphere. Apart from that, Ram Janmotsav, Krishna Janmashtami, and Holika Dahan are also celebrated with great fervour.