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Fort Palace
Towering over the fort’s main square, and partly built on top of the Hawa Pol (the fourth fort gate), is the former rulers’ elegant seven-storey palace.Much of the palace is open to the public – floor upon floor of small rooms provide a fascinating sense of how such buildings were
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Royal Centre
While it can be accessed by a 2km foot trail from the Achyutaraya Temple, the Royal Centre is best reached via the Hampi–Kamalapuram road. A number of Hampi’s major sites stand here.The Mahanavami-diiba is a 12m-high three-tired platform with intricate carvings and panoramic vistas
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Barabazar
Finding the following minor religious sights walks you through some of Kolkata’s most vibrantly chaotic alleys teeming with traders, rickshaw couriers and baggage wallahs with impossibly huge packages balanced on their heads. Hidden away amid the paper-merchants of Old China Bazaar
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Venkateshwara Temple
Devotees flock to Tirumala to see Venkateshwara, an avatar of Vishnu. ‘Ordinary darshan’ requires a wait of anywhere from two to eight hours in claustrophobic metal cages ringing the temple. Special-entry darshan tickets (₹300) will get you through the queue faster, though you’ll s
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Phuktal Gompa
Five hours walk from Anmu is amply rewarded by the sight of this14th-century monastery, hanging on a cliff face beneath a gaping cave entrance. The first glimpse is from the monastery guesthouse set amid wild rosebushes and stupas. Inside the gompa are some 700-year-old mural fragm
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Kumbhalgarh
About 80km north of Udaipur, Kumbhalgarh is a fantastic, remote fort, fulfilling romantic expectations and vividly summoning up the chivalrous, warlike Rajput era. One of the many forts built by Rana Kumbha (r 1433–68), under whom Mewar reached its greatest extents, the isolated fo
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Matha Amrithanandamayi Mission
The incongruously pink Matha Amrithanandamayi Mission is the famous ashram of one of India’s few female gurus, Amrithanandamayi, also known as Amma (Mother) or ‘The Hugging Mother because of the darshan (audience) she offers, often hugging thousands of people in marathon all-night
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Junagarh
This most impressive fort was constructed between 1589 and 1593 by Raja Rai Singh, ruler of Bikaner and a general in the army of the Mughal emperor Akbar. You enter through the Karan Prole gate on the east side and pass through three more gates before the ticket office for the pala
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Church of St Francis of Assisi
West of the Sé Cathedral, the Church of St Francis of Assisi is no longer in use for worship, and consequently exudes a more mournful air than its neighbours.The church started life as a small chapel, built on this site by eight Franciscan friars on their arrival in 1517. In 1521 i
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Cabo Raj Bhavan
On the westernmost point of the peninsula stands an old fortress, Cabo Raj Bhavan, nowadays the official residence of the Governor of Goa. Plans to build a fortress here, to guard the entrance to the Mandovi and Zuari Rivers, were first proposed in 1540, and although the 16th centu
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Jain Temples
Within the fort walls is a maze-like, interconnecting treasure trove of seven beautiful yellow sandstone Jain temples, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. Opening times have a habit of changing, so check with the caretakers. The intricate carving rivals that of the marble Jain
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Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary
Named after the late Dr Salim Moizzudin Abdul Ali, India’s best-known ornithologist, this serene sanctuary on Chorao Island was created by Goa’s Forestry Department in 1988 to protect the birdlife that thrives here and the mangroves that have grown up in and around the reclaimed ma
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City Palace Museum
The main part of the palace is open as the City Palace Museum, with rooms extravagantly decorated with mirrors, tiles and paintings, and housing a large, varied collection of artefacts. It’s entered from Ganesh Chowk , which you reach from Manek Chowk. The City Palace Museum begins
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Dargah of Khwaja Muin
This is the tomb of Sufi saint Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti, who came to Ajmer from Persia in 1192 and died here in 1236. The tomb gained its significance during the time of the Mughals – many emperors added to the buildings here. Construction of the shrine was completed by Humayun,
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Gingee Fort
With three separate hilltop citadels and a 6km perimeter of cliffs and thick walls, the ruins of enormous Gingee Fort poke out of the Tamil plain, 37km east of Tiruvannamalai, like castles misplaced by the Lord of the Rings. It was constructed mainly in the 16th century by the Vija
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Braganza House
Braganza House, built in the 17th century and stretching along one whole side of Chandor’s village square, is the biggest Portuguese mansion of its kind in Goa and the best example of what Goa’s scores of once grand and glorious mansions have today become. Granted the land by the K
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Chapora Fort
Chapora’s old laterite fort, standing guard over the mouth of the Chapora River, was built by the Portuguese in 1617, to protect Bardez taluka (district), in Portuguese hands from 1543 onwards, from the threat of invaders. It was built over the remnants of an older Muslim structure
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Delwara Temples
These remarkable Jain temples are Mt Abu’s most remarkable attraction and feature some of India’s finest temple decoration. They predate the town of Mt Abu by many centuries and were built when this site was just a remote mountain vastness. It’s said that the artisans were paid acc
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Shri Mahadeva Temple
If you’re a history or temple buff, don’t miss the atmospheric remains of the unusual little Hindu Shri Mahadeva Temple at Tambdi Surla, 12km north of Molem. Built around the 12th century by the Kadamba dynasty, it’s the only temple of dozens of its type to have survived both the y
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Buddhist Caves
Close to the Jama Masjid (which is inside the Uperkot Fort) are 2nd century AD Buddhist caves , an eerie three-storey carved complex – the main hall contains pillars with weathered carvings.
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