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Valluvar Kottam
This memorial honours the Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar and his classic work, the Thirukural . A weaver by trade, Thiruvalluvar lived around the 1st century BC in what is present-day Chennai and wrote this famed poem, providing a moral code for millions of followers. The three-level mem
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Old GPO Building
One of the most iconic buildings on BBD Bagh is the old post office with its central rotunda soaring nearly 40m around a statue of a lance-wielding mail runner. Stamps are still sold here although most postal transactions are in a building 100m further up Koilaghat St. Outside that
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Nathmal
This late-19th-century haveli, once used as the prime minister’s house, is still partly inhabited. It has an extraordinary exterior, dripping with carvings and the 1st floor has some beautiful paintings using 1.5kg of gold leaf. The left and right wings were the work of two brother
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Matho Gompa
Matho Gompa is a Sakya-Buddhist monastery perched on a colourfully stratified ridge above Matho village. Most of the early-15th-century monastery has been replaced by more modern structures in recent years, but it’s worth the trip for the stupendous valley views. During the monaste
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Lourdes Church
The hush of this 19th-century neo-Gothic church makes an interesting contrast to the frenetic activity of Trichy’s Hindu temples. In the cool, green campus of Jesuit St Joseph’s College next door, the dusty St Josephs College Museum contains the creepy natural history collections o
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Sharad Baug Palace
This graceful 1867 Italianate palace, set among shade trees full of crows and bats, was the abode of the last Maharao of Kachchh, Madansingh, until his death in 1991. It lost most of its 3rd floor in the 2001 earthquake, and the remaining lower floors are closed. However, the adjac
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Tacha Gompa
Perched atop an improbable sliver of rocky outcrop, this tiny 1790 monastery is often closed but is worth the 10-minute near-vertical climb from the main Markha Valley trail for a feeling of being in an eagles nest amid the rocky spires. Its ten minutes walk east of the bridge that
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Padmasambhava Statue
Painted in shimmering copper and bronze, the impressively vast 45m-high Padmasambhava statue dominates the Samdruptse hilltop. Completed in 2004 on a foundation stone laid by the Dalai Lama, it’s visible from miles around, shining like a golden cone amid the forests of Samdruptse H
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Gopal Mandir
The Scindias built this marble-spired temple, a magnificent example of Maratha architecture, in the 19th century. Muslim pillagers originally stole the sanctum’s silver-plated doors from Somnath Temple in Gujarat and installed them in Ghazni, Afghanistan. Mohammed Shah Abdati later
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Mahavir Prasad Goenka Haveli
On the same road as the Geori Shankar Haveli is the 1885 Mahavir Prasad Goenka Haveli, considered by some to have some of the best paintings in Shekhawati. The rooms on the 1st floor are most dazzling: stepping into one is like entering a jewellery box – it glimmers with mirrorwork
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Pandav Leni
Dating from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD, the 24 early Buddhist caves of Pandav Leni are located about 8km south of Nasik along the Mumbai road. There’s a steep, 20-minute hike separating the caves from the highway. Caves 19 and 23 have some interesting carvings; the re
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Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary
This reserve on the five-hectare site of a former rubber plantation is the haunt of a variety of domestic and migratory birds. October to February is the time for travelling birds like the garganey teal, osprey, marsh harrier and steppey eagle; May to July is the breeding season fo
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Naropa Royal Palace
Once Ladakh’s summer capital, Shey is an attractively green, pond-dappled oasis from which rises a central dry rocky ridge, inscribed with roadside Buddha carvings . The ridge is topped by the small if photogenic Naropa Royal Palace . This mini-potala structure is undergoing consid
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Bhaja Caves
It’s a 3km jaunt from the main road, on the other side of the expressway, to the Bhaja Caves, where the setting is lusher, greener and quieter than at Karla Cave. Thought to date from around 200 BC, 10 of the 18 caves here are viharas (Buddhist monasteries), while Cave 12 is an ope
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Sullivan Memorial
If you’re interested in the history of the Nilgiris, check out this wonderful little museum, 2km north of Kotagiri centre. The house built in 1819 by John Sullivan, founder of Ooty, has been refurbished and filled with fascinating photos, newspaper cuttings and artefacts about loca
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Raghunandan Library
Non-Hindus can spy from the roof of Raghunandan Library opposite; a ‘donation’, while not officially compulsory, is expected (₹10 is fine, though they will whine about it). The library is closed on Sunday, so touts who will help you to a nearby rooftop prey on tourists and demand ₹
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Akbar’s Mausoleum
This outstanding sandstone and marble tomb commemorates the greatest of the Mughal emperors. The huge courtyard is entered through a stunning gateway. It has three-storey minarets at each corner and is built of red sandstone strikingly inlaid with white-marble geometric patterns.Th
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Vaital Mandir
This 8th-century temple, with a double-storey ‘wagon roof’ influenced by Buddhist cave architecture, was a centre of tantric worship, eroticism and bloody sacrifice. Look closely and you’ll see some very early erotic carvings on the walls. Chamunda (a fearsome incarnation of Devi),
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Tipu Sultan’s Palace
Close to the vibrant Krishnarajendra Market stands the elegant palace of Tipu Sultan, notable for its teak pillars and ornamental frescoes. Though not as beautiful (or well maintained) as Tipu’s summer palace in Srirangapatnam, near to Mysore, it’s an interesting monument, and wort
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Sani Gompa
Beside the Kargil road around 6km from Padum, Zanskar’s oldest gompa is a small, two-storey prayer hall ringed by a tunnelled cloister and a whitewashed stone wall studded with stupas. During the rule of Kushan Emperor Kanishka (2nd century AD), Sani was the site of a royal stupa w
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