185 Cool and Unusual Things to Do in India - Atlas Obscura

Unusual Attractions in India

Chand Baori

Thousands of exquisitely carved stone water storage wells, hundreds of stone steps fill this exquisite medieval stepwell.

Palace of Winds

The 953 windows undoubtedly make this the world's most beautiful screened porch.

Cherrapunjee, India

The Root Bridges of Cherrapunji

Centuries-old bridges grown from tangled roots.

Skeleton Lake of Roopkund, India

A lake with hundreds of ancient skeletons surrounding it. The surprise is what killed them.

Jal Mahal

More than half of this Indian palace is drowned but it looks all the more spectacular for it.

Ellora Caves

This complex of vertically-excavated Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu monolithic temples in India's Maharashtra providence illustrates a spirit of tolerance characteristic of ancient India.

The Blue City of Jodhpur

Once an indicator of social class, the color blue has come to define this city on the edge of the Thar Desert.

Shatrunjaya Hill

A mecca for India's Jains.

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Unique Food & Drink in India

Szechuan Button

This herb gives cocktails another kind of buzz.

Falooda

A 2,500-year-old Persian dessert evolved into this Indian summertime favorite.

Pista Burfi

The pistachio fudge makes a vibrant accompaniment to celebrations in Northern India.

Chai at Sahu Tea Shop

In an unassuming shop in Jaipur, a family has been serving highly addictive chai for decades.

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South Indian Cinema: Film, Fandom & Abandoned Theaters

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Stories About India

The facade of Hind Talkies in Bareilly.

An Elegy for India's Single-Screen Cinema Palaces

Meet the photographer who has scoured the country to document these vanishing communal sites.

by Reem Khokhar

December 3, 2020

An old sati stone visible in Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

India’s Sati Stones Commemorate a Macabre Historical Practice

Their challenging legacy has complicated preservation and study.

by Kamala Thiagarajan

November 30, 2020

The original vetala was a spirit who posed riddles.

One of Dracula's Often Overlooked Inspirations Is the Indian Vetala

It was an English "translation" that turned a wise, if mischievous, figure into a bloodsucker.

by Emma Starer Gross

October 30, 2020

A selection of Tamil-language comics distributed by Lion-Muthu Comics.

How a Tiny Indian Publisher Brings a World of Comics to Tamil Readers

A four-person team translates Italian, French, and English comics into a language spoken by 70 million people.

by Deepa Bhasthi

October 7, 2020

During the Bengal Famine, rice was precious, but not necessarily scarce.

A ‘Forgotten Holocaust’ Is Missing From Indian Food Stories

One of Bengal’s greatest tragedies is overlooked in the West. It’s missing from cookbooks and food writing, too.

by Sharanya Deepak

September 17, 2020

Muralidharan worked with illustrators Shrishti Dabolkar and Priyadarshini Narayana to create renderings of the vegetables featured in <em>Cook and See</em>.

Cracking the Case of South India's Missing Vegetables

A food designer used quarantine to track down the mystery produce in his grandmother's cookbook.

by Reina Gattuso

India's Ancient Sites Are Under Threat From Development

India is key to the story of early human migration. But its archaeological sites are rapidly disappearing.

by Shreya Dasgupta

Temple attendants conduct the ritual bathing of the idols of (left to right) Balabhadra, Subhadra, and Jagannath in Puri on June 6, 2020.

Lockdown and the Festival Where Hindu Gods Go Into Isolation

The complex ceremonies continue, but likely without hundreds of thousands of devotees.

by Mahima A. Jain

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