25 best attractions in India

Bright, beau­ti­ful and mys­te­ri­ous India attracts tourists. Some come here for the exot­ic, oth­ers for a beach hol­i­day, and there are those who are inter­est­ed in spir­i­tu­al prac­tices.

Things to do in India

Indi­an archi­tec­ture deserves the clos­est atten­tion of tourists. This is a mix­ture of British tra­di­tions (her­itage of the colo­nial past) and local archi­tec­ture. The Taj Mahal is Indi­a’s most famous land­mark. The snow-white mau­soleum is an ode to love, frozen in stone. The Mahara­ja’s Palace is the res­i­dence of the ruler of India and a real realm of lux­u­ry. These places should be in the guide­book of every cul­tured per­son.

Vis­it­ing tem­ples will be use­ful for those who are look­ing for inner enlight­en­ment and want to broad­en their hori­zons. The majes­tic build­ings are impres­sive in scope. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Baha’i reli­gion built a tem­ple that looked like an unblown lotus bud. Har­mandir Sahib is the gold­en sanc­tu­ary of the Sikhs, whose doors are open to every­one. The Jama Masjid is the largest cathe­dral mosque in India.

Nature is the main asset of the coun­try. The beach­es of Goa await fans of con­tem­pla­tive relax­ation and down­shifters from all over the world. Adam’s Bridge is a mys­te­ri­ous geo­log­i­cal for­ma­tion that once con­nect­ed the con­ti­nent and ancient Cey­lon. The Ganges is a pic­turesque riv­er that plays an impor­tant role in the life of every Hin­du.

Architecture

Taj Mahal

The most famous attrac­tion in India, accord­ing to the most rough esti­mates, is vis­it­ed by about 1.5 mil­lion tourists a year. The snow-white mau­soleum of rare mar­ble was built by Shah Jahan for his beloved wife Mum­taz, who died while giv­ing birth to her 14th child.

The memo­r­i­al com­plex was com­plet­ed in 1653. It har­mo­nious­ly com­bines Islam­ic, Asian and Per­sian archi­tec­tur­al tra­di­tions. The main attrac­tions are four gigan­tic 40-meter minarets, a grace­ful dome, gates and carved arch­es.

The inte­ri­or is made in the pietra-dura tech­nique — carved mar­ble pan­els are dec­o­rat­ed with semi-pre­cious stones. This com­plex work was car­ried out by crafts­men invit­ed from Europe. Alas, the del­i­cate dec­o­ra­tions have suf­fered from time and van­dals.

Gateway of India

The 42-meter stone arch is the sym­bol of New Del­hi. It was built in 1931 in mem­o­ry of the Indi­an sol­diers who did not return from the fields of the First World War and the vic­tims of the Anglo-Afghan mil­i­tary oper­a­tion of 1919. In total, more than 90 thou­sand peo­ple fell in the con­flicts. On memo­r­i­al days, locals bring flow­ers to the arch. The gates look espe­cial­ly beau­ti­ful in the evening in the rays of illu­mi­na­tion.

Maharaja’s Palace

The fab­u­lous palace was once the res­i­dence of the Vadi­yar mahara­jas. It was built by British archi­tect Hen­ry Irwin in 1912. The entire project cost more than 4.5 mil­lion rupees — an unheard of amount for those years.

Inside — a fan­tas­tic dec­o­ra­tion in the Indo-Moor­ish style. These are intri­cate stained-glass win­dows, bright wall paint­ings, paint­ings, a kalei­do­scope of mir­rors, mosa­ic floors, antique fur­ni­ture and carved doors made of pre­cious wood.

Fort Aguada

The citadel of impres­sive size was built by the Por­tuguese in the 17th cen­tu­ry. It occu­pies almost the entire penin­su­la in the Bardez region and clos­es the mouth of the Man­dovi Riv­er at its con­flu­ence with the Ara­bi­an Sea.

The fortress con­sists of sev­er­al build­ings sur­round­ed by a mas­sive wall and a deep moat. Inside there is a spa­cious court­yard, its main dom­i­nant is the light­house, which, unfor­tu­nate­ly, is not work­ing. From here you have a beau­ti­ful view of the sur­round­ings. Part of the fort is used as a hotel.

jal mahal

The amaz­ing palace seems to soar above the mir­ror-like sur­face of Man Sagar Lake. Its 4 low­er floors are com­plete­ly sub­merged. You can see only the upper part of the build­ing, but this is enough to appre­ci­ate the beau­ti­ful archi­tec­ture.

Jal Mahal was built by Mad­ho Singh I in the mid­dle of the 18th cen­tu­ry. One day, a severe drought began in India, and in order to pre­vent famine, the ruler ordered the con­struc­tion of a dam to irri­gate the fields. Over time, the val­ley filled with water and grad­u­al­ly flood­ed the palace.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Station

The most col­or­ful build­ing in Mum­bai com­bines Vic­to­ri­an tra­di­tions, Goth­ic and local archi­tec­tur­al tech­niques. From afar, the rail­way sta­tion resem­bles a palace with tur­rets, carved win­dows, arch­es and rich bas-reliefs.

The sta­tion, which bore the name of Queen Vic­to­ria until 2004, became famous for the fact that scenes from the Oscar-win­ning film Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire were filmed with­in its walls.

Hawa Mahal Jaipur

Among the archi­tec­ture of Jaipur, the scar­let palace stands out. Its facade con­sists exclu­sive­ly of win­dows of var­i­ous sizes and bal­conies. This solu­tion has a prac­ti­cal pur­pose — numer­ous open­ings pro­vide air cir­cu­la­tion, so that the rooms are always cool.

Mahara­ja’s wives lived in the palace. So that the ladies do not get tired, mov­ing along the 5 floors of the build­ing, the stairs were replaced with gen­tle ramps.

Religious sites

Lotus Temple

The main tem­ple of the Baha’i reli­gious move­ment is locat­ed in New Del­hi. The snow-white build­ing, sim­i­lar to a lotus flower, was erect­ed in 1986. 9 entrances lead inside. The height of the ceil­ings in the cen­tral halls reach­es 40 m. At the same time, up to 2,500 believ­ers can attend the ser­vice. The tem­ple is open to every­one.

Jama Masjid

The largest cathe­dral (Fri­day) mosque in India can accom­mo­date up to 25 thou­sand peo­ple at the same time. The Jama Masjid was built by Shah Jahan in 1658. The facade of the build­ing is dec­o­rat­ed with alter­nat­ing slabs of white mar­ble and red sand­stone. The tow­ers of minarets, locat­ed at the cor­ners of the com­plex, soar 40 meters into the sky.

Akshardham temple

Bizarre, unre­al, as if out of a fairy tale, Akshard­ham looks more like a the­atri­cal scenery than a place of reli­gious wor­ship. The tem­ple belongs to the Swami­narayan branch of Hin­duism. It was built in 2005 with dona­tions from believ­ers.

Inside and out, a bold mix of Mughal, Guj­jar and Rajasthani archi­tec­tur­al trends. The pink sand­stone build­ing is cov­ered with carv­ings from top to bot­tom, the arch of the main entrance is sup­port­ed by 4 mas­sive columns. The domes seem to float in the air. The tem­ple “stands” on 148 ele­phants, and among the stone fig­ures there is not a sin­gle pair of sim­i­lar ones.

Ajanta cave temples

The com­plex con­sists of 29 caves. Five are occu­pied by Bud­dhist tem­ples, the rest are monas­tic cells. All of them are cut in a horse­shoe-shaped rock at a lev­el of 75 m from the bot­tom of the gorge, along which a talk­a­tive riv­er runs.

The tem­ples of Ajan­ta appeared approx­i­mate­ly in the 2nd cen­tu­ry BC. e. They were dis­cov­ered by chance by British sol­diers while hunt­ing in 1819. Ancient archi­tects did a titan­ic work, carv­ing skill­ful sculp­tures, columns and bas-reliefs in gran­ite rock with the help of prim­i­tive tools. The detail of the art­work is impres­sive.

Khajuraho

Three groups of medieval Hin­du tem­ples have become famous all over the world for their erot­ic bas-reliefs and fres­coes. Ini­tial­ly, there were 85 struc­tures, but only 25 have sur­vived to this day. Mas­ter­pieces of Indo-Aryan archi­tec­ture were erect­ed from 950 to approx­i­mate­ly 1050.

The facades of the tem­ples are sur­round­ed by a string of carved stone fig­ures, frozen in friv­o­lous pos­es. These are women, men, god­dess­es, nymphs, war­riors and myth­i­cal ani­mals, seized with sex­u­al desire. The build­ings in the west are the best pre­served.

Harmandir Sahib

The Gold­en Tem­ple of the Sikhs is locat­ed in the city of Amrit­sar. In the cen­ter of the archi­tec­tur­al com­plex stands the Har­mandir (divine or main tem­ple). Its facade is lined with real gold plates. The pre­cious met­al shines in the rays of the set­ting sun and is reflect­ed in the Amrit Sarovar lake — an amaz­ing sight.

Reli­gious music is con­stant­ly played in the tem­ple. Tourists and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of oth­er reli­gions can go inside, only before the thresh­old you need to thor­ough­ly wash your feet.

Natural attractions and beaches

Ganges river

The longest riv­er on the penin­su­la plays a big role in the life of every inhab­i­tant of India. It pro­vides water, nour­ish­es farm­land, is used to trans­port goods, peo­ple, and is also of great impor­tance to believ­ers.

In the sacred Ganges, all the main rit­u­als asso­ci­at­ed with birth, mar­riage, death, etc. are per­formed. Numer­ous tem­ples and pic­turesque set­tle­ments are locat­ed along the banks of the water­way.

Adam’s bridge

Rama’s bridge, also known as Adam’s bridge, is a chain of sand­banks, coral islands and shal­low waters (0.5–1.5 m). The length of the nat­ur­al for­ma­tion is about 50 km.

Until the 15th cen­tu­ry, the bridge was a pedes­tri­an route from south­ern India to Sri Lan­ka, which at that time was part of the con­ti­nent. Typhoons, hur­ri­canes and earth­quakes par­tial­ly destroyed the trail.

Palolem

There is no short­age of beach­es on the Indi­an coast. Palolem is a cult and pop­u­lar place, but only among lovers of a relaxed and con­tem­pla­tive hol­i­day. There are no night­clubs and noisy bars that the world’s famous resorts can boast of. Palolem is ide­al for yoga and med­i­ta­tion. More­over, on the coast you can find both expen­sive hotels and bud­get guest­hous­es.

Dudhsagar waterfall

The largest water­fall in India is locat­ed in the Dudhsagar Nat­ur­al Park, which gave it its name. Water jets fall from a height of 603 m. The road to this nat­ur­al won­der pass­es through dense jun­gles rich in exot­ic flo­ra and fau­na. Part of the route can be over­come by jeep, the rest — on foot over steep stones.

Gardens of Lodi

City Park is the best place in Del­hi to escape the heat, enjoy the col­or­ful veg­e­ta­tion and admire the epic ruins of 15th cen­tu­ry tem­ples and tombs. The ter­ri­to­ry is well-groomed, archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ments are pro­tect­ed by the state. Both locals and tourists love to vis­it here.

Archaeological sites and museums

Delhi National Museum

This is the most impor­tant muse­um in the coun­try, which con­tains more than 100 thou­sand arti­facts relat­ed to the his­to­ry and cul­ture of the coun­try. The exhi­bi­tions fea­ture archae­o­log­i­cal finds, tem­ple para­pher­na­lia, sculp­tures, paint­ings, jew­el­ry, house­hold items, and more. It will take sev­er­al hours to see the exhibits.

Ancient city in Hampi

In the north of the state of Kar­nata­ka, not far from the set­tle­ment of Hampi, lie the ruins of the for­mer cap­i­tal of the Vijayana­gar Empire, which exist­ed from 1336 to 1646. Tourists can walk along the remains of the tem­ple and the ruins of the roy­al palace. The fortress walls and the cor­ral for ele­phants are well pre­served. The ter­ri­to­ry of the com­plex occu­pies approx­i­mate­ly 26 sq. km. The ancient city looks espe­cial­ly dra­mat­ic in the rays of the set­ting sun.

Handicraft Museum in Delhi

The ter­ri­to­ry of the muse­um con­sists of sev­er­al pavil­ions and a large court­yard in the cen­ter. Here you can learn every­thing about tra­di­tion­al Indi­an crafts — from stone carv­ing to mak­ing jew­el­ry and fur­ni­ture. There is a sou­venir shop. The­mat­ic fes­ti­vals are often held on the ter­ri­to­ry of the muse­um.

Pattadakal in Karnataka

The mod­ern city of Pat­tadakal is not very attrac­tive. But in the 7th cen­tu­ry it was the cap­i­tal of the Chalukya king­dom. The ruins of tem­ples, palaces, pub­lic build­ings and reli­gious build­ings remind of the for­mer grandeur — all of them are locat­ed next to the riv­er. In this city, the coro­na­tion of mon­archs took place, and the admin­is­tra­tion of lands was car­ried out. Now there is not even a tourist infra­struc­ture here.

Entertainment

Bollywood

The Indi­an Film Fac­to­ry is head­quar­tered in Mum­bai. On the film sets there is a round-the-clock work: they shoot seri­als, films for wide release and com­mer­cials. Even though the pro­duc­tion does not dif­fer in qual­i­ty, the plot is beat­en, but the audi­ence is cap­ti­vat­ed by the invari­able “hap­py end­ing”, the tri­umph of love and danc­ing for every occa­sion.

Bus tours are avail­able in Bol­ly­wood. Tourists are tak­en to film sets with scenery that has been fea­tured in pop­u­lar films. Some pavil­ions allow you to see how films are made.

Holi holiday

The hol­i­day of spring, renew­al, hopes and aspi­ra­tions, which will cer­tain­ly come true, is cel­e­brat­ed on a grand scale every spring. The dates of the hol­i­day are float­ing, each region of India has its own his­to­ry of the emer­gence of Holi.

The apogee of the cel­e­bra­tion is the sprin­kling of paints. Fes­ti­val par­tic­i­pants for­get about their social sta­tus, prob­lems and plunge into the chaos of fun, send­ing hand­fuls of col­or­ful dust at each oth­er.

Anjuna

The main habi­tat of hip­pies and down­shifters who are bored with a stuffy office. Here, on the coast­line, about 2 km long, the spir­it of free­dom hov­ers. The infra­struc­ture is not very well devel­oped, but you can still find rows of sun loungers and umbrel­las.

Food and cloth­ing ven­dors scur­ry­ing between the tanned bod­ies of vaca­tion­ers can be intru­sive. Every Wednes­day there is a flea mar­ket in the vil­lage. Best­seller — crafts made of san­dal­wood and sarongs. Also here you can find clothes made from nat­ur­al fab­rics, shoes, bags and much more. How­ev­er, beware of pick­pock­et­ing.