Experience the best of Bhopal

Bhopal spreads around two lakes, the Upper Lake and the smaller Lower Lake, in the centre of India, and is known as the City of Lakes. The Nawabs of Bhopal ruled from the 18th century, and in the 19th and early 20th centuries four Begums, women rulers, left mosques, gardens and palaces. The Taj-ul-Masajid, with pink walls and white domes, is one of the largest mosques in India.

The old city holds the Moti Masjid, the Gohar Mahal and the Shaukat Mahal, and Van Vihar National Park runs along the shore of the Upper Lake. The Museum of Man, on a hillside, displays reconstructed tribal homes, and Bharat Bhavan is a centre for the arts. Sanchi, with its Buddhist stupas from the time of Ashoka, lies about 45 kilometres north-east, and the rock shelters of Bhimbetka, painted by prehistoric hands, lie about the same distance south.

Poha topped with sev and served with jalebi is the usual breakfast, and the lanes of the old city, around Chowk, are lined with stalls selling kebabs, biryani and korma. Winters are mild and the best time for sightseeing, summers are fiercely hot, and the monsoon from July to September fills the lakes.