The village is located on the left bank of Vamsadhara river at a distance of 48 km from Srikakulam town( nearest rail head ) and 160  km from Visakhapatnam ( nearest airport).

Mukhalingam is home to a group of three Śiva temples - Madhukeswara, Someswara, Bhimeswara - which have been variously dated by historians from late eighth century to early eleventh century CE. Mukhalingam was the erstwhile capital of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. The main temple of Sri Mukhalingam was built by Eastern Ganga King Kamaranaba Deva II, great-grand father of Anantavarman Chodaganga of Kalinga.

Etymology
Various views by have been put forward for the origin of the name Mukhalingam. It states that "Mukhalingam" is a corruption of "Mohalingam", which is the Odia/Prakrit form of "Madhu[ka]linga". Another view states that the linga at the Madhukeswara shrine is a faceted one and therefore the shrine and the town were termed as Mukhalinga with "Mukha" meaning face in Sanskrit/Telugu/Odia. It as also been posited that "Mukhalingam" is derived from "Mudu-Kalingam" which is the Telugu translation of the Sanskrit word "Tri-kalinga". Mukhalingam was the main city in the region of Kalinga, also known in the ancient period as Tri-Kalinga because it was divided into three regions.