Category: Places
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Fort Kochi: four flags, one harbour and a December art show
By Isla Quinn Salt air. Old stone. A port that has changed hands more often than its streets have changed names. Fort Kochi sits on the water-bound islands and islets south-west of mainland Kochi, in Ernakulam district. Wikipedia calls the area Old Kochi or West Kochi, gives its elevation as 29 m, and says it…
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Ahmedabad: a city of gates inside a city
By Isla Quinn Walk in at dawn and the old city is mostly doors. Big ones, small ones, gateways across whole streets. This is the pol, the gated lane that makes the walled city of Ahmedabad unlike its neighbours. The founding UNESCO’s listing says the city was founded by Sultan Ahmad Shah in 1411 on…
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A town of red clay panels, built where there was no stone
By Ines Keane Bengal has plenty of mud and very little rock. Bishnupur’s builders worked with that. Their temples are brick and laterite, covered with fired clay, and the clay is carved like a picture book. Where it is Bishnupur is a city and municipality in Bankura district, West Bengal, according to Wikipedia. Curly Tales,…
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Classes under the trees, and a fair after the harvest
By Isla Quinn December in Santiniketan is cool, dry and bright. UNESCO’s description of the place begins with a school that held its lessons in the open air. That image still holds the town together. Trees first. Buildings second. Where it is According to Wikipedia, Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in Birbhum district,…
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A shadow that moves one millimetre a second
By Isla Quinn Stand beside the largest instrument at the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur and wait. According to Wikipedia, the shadow on the great sundial moves visibly at about 1 mm per second, roughly a hand’s breadth every minute. Slow. Exact. Cut in stone. The city around it Wikipedia’s article on Jaipur says the city…
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Agra: three Mughal monuments, one river and a winter that suits them
By Rafe Calder The sources cannot agree on the year the Taj Mahal was started. One says 1631, another 1632. Agra is that kind of place: well documented, heavily visited and still full of small disagreements about dates. Where it sits Agra lies on the right bank of the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh. Britannica puts…
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Hyderabad’s Old City: four arches, one long lane of bangles
By Isla Quinn Four minarets. Four arches. Four roads running out from the middle, and one of them lined with bangles. Where it starts Wikipedia says Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah founded Hyderabad in 1591 on the Musi River, partly to escape water shortages at Golconda. The Old City lies on the river’s southern side. A…
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Mahabalipuram: temples cut from single boulders
By Isla Quinn Most temples are stacked, stone on stone. Five of these were not. UNESCO says each is carved from one boulder, and the Shore Temple is the exception, built from stone blocks. Where it is Mahabalipuram, also written Mamallapuram, sits on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal in Tamil Nadu. Britannica…
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Udaipur: a city that is mostly water and white stone
By Isla Quinn Five lakes. One ridge. A palace that took, by one count, nearly four centuries to finish. Udaipur in southern Rajasthan is a city built around water, and the sources we read give it three different nicknames and two different founding years. Where it sits Wikipedia places Udaipur in the south of Rajasthan,…
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Jaisalmer: a fort that people still live in, and nobody agrees how many
By Isla Quinn Four thousand people. Or three thousand. Or two thousand. Three sources, three numbers, one fort. It is a good place to start with Jaisalmer, because the town sits in the Thar Desert and the question of who is inside its walls is still open. Where and when Wikipedia’s article on the city…