Landmarks of India. Top 10 Unique Places

India, the sev­enth largest coun­try in the world, stretch­ing from the high Himalayas to the tops of Ker­ala, from the sacred Ganges to the sands of the Thar Desert. The coun­try’s pop­u­la­tion exceeds one bil­lion inhab­i­tants, is divid­ed into more than 2,000 eth­nic groups and speaks more than 200 dif­fer­ent lan­guages. Among the attrac­tions of India are a huge num­ber of archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ments, nat­ur­al won­ders and an almost end­less vari­ety of cul­tures. Ancient ruins, breath­tak­ing reli­gious shrines, exot­ic cities and amaz­ing nat­ur­al land­scapes — all this inspires awe and at the same time fas­ci­nates the trav­el­er. I bring to your atten­tion a list of the 10 most pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tions in India.

Let’s start from the 10th place — these are the lagoons and marsh­es of Ker­ala, stretched par­al­lel to the coast of the Ara­bi­an Sea. The Ker­ala wet­lands are home to many unique species includ­ing crabs, frogs, water­fowl and ani­mals such as otters and tur­tles. Boat trips along long nat­ur­al canals are very pop­u­lar here.

Picola Palace in Udaipur

This palace was built in the mid­dle of a lake in the 18th cen­tu­ry as a roy­al sum­mer res­i­dence. Today it is a lux­u­ri­ous 5‑star hotel. Tourists are brought here by boat from the pier on the east­ern shore of Lake Piko­la. The palace became espe­cial­ly famous in 1983, when one of the James Bond films took place here.

Virupaksha Temple in Hampi

The Viru­pak­sha tem­ple became a key shrine of these places under the rulers of Vijayana­gara. This tem­ple has been in oper­a­tion since its con­struc­tion in the sev­enth cen­tu­ry AD to this day, mak­ing it one of the old­est func­tion­ing Hin­du tem­ples.

Palolem beach in Goa

Palolem Beach is con­sid­ered the most beau­ti­ful beach in Goa — it is a nat­ur­al bay sur­round­ed by high capes on both sides. The sea here is always calm, there are almost nev­er waves. This beach can be an ide­al place for con­nois­seurs of good hotels, inex­pen­sive restau­rants, vibrant nightlife and a large num­ber of free, lib­er­at­ed like-mind­ed peo­ple.

Kanha National Park

Kan­ha Park is one of the most beau­ti­ful nature reserves in Asia, the most famous nat­ur­al attrac­tion in India. This is one of the best places to watch tigers in their nat­ur­al habi­tat. The lush bam­boo forests, grassy mead­ows and gorges of Kan­ha became the inspi­ra­tion for Rud­yard Kipling, who wrote his famous Jun­gle Book.

Temple of Harmandir Sahib in Armitsar

Har­mandir Sahib is bet­ter known as the gold­en tem­ple, one of the most beau­ti­ful reli­gious sites in India, the most impor­tant reli­gious place for the Sikhs. The con­struc­tion of the tem­ple began in the 16th cen­tu­ry by the Guru him­self, and in the 19th cen­tu­ry the upper floors of the tem­ple were cov­ered with gold. The tem­ple is always full, thou­sands of pil­grims come here every day to bow to their shrine.

Jaisalmer fortress

The Jaisalmer fortress is locat­ed at a con­sid­er­able dis­tance from civ­i­liza­tion, in the desert on the bor­der with Pak­istan. Jaisalmer is also called the Gold­en City because of its yel­low sand­stone walls. This is one of the most beau­ti­ful, and at the same time, the least vis­it­ed attrac­tions in India. The rea­son for this is its remote loca­tion.

Ajanta caves

The Ajan­ta caves were carved into the rock around the sec­ond mil­len­ni­um BC. Around 650 AD, the caves were aban­doned and for­got­ten until 1819. Thanks to the iso­la­tion, these caves are per­fect­ly pre­served; here you can see many ancient fres­coes carved into the rock. The best way to get here is from the city of Aurangabad, along the way you can also vis­it the Ello­ra caves.

Holy City of Varanasi

Varanasi is locat­ed on the banks of the Ganges Riv­er. This is a sacred place for Hin­dus, Bud­dhists and Jains alike. This is one of the old­est cities on Earth, con­tin­u­ous­ly inhab­it­ed since its con­struc­tion. One of the most breath­tak­ing scenes in the world is the mass bathing of pil­grims in the waters of the Ganges Riv­er, as well as the sun­rise against the back­drop of cen­turies-old tem­ples.

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is not only the most rec­og­niz­able land­mark of India, but of the whole world. This huge mau­soleum is locat­ed in Agra and was built of white mar­ble by order of the Mughal Emper­or Shah Jahan in mem­o­ry of his beloved wife. He called it “a teardrop on the cheek of eter­ni­ty.” In addi­tion to the main domed mar­ble mau­soleum, the Taj Mahal also includes sev­er­al oth­er very beau­ti­ful struc­tures, mir­ror ponds and dec­o­ra­tive flow­er­ing gar­dens.

As a bonus, I also invite you to vis­it the top­ic ded­i­cat­ed to the cave tem­ples of India, where you will find a sto­ry about the most famous of them.