Northern India

India’s capital, Delhi, long the main gateway to the north, is not a single city but a palimpsest of eight cities built atop one another over centuries. Visitors can trace its history from the bustling lanes of Old Delhi, dominated by the Mughal-built Red Fort, to the orderly avenues of New Delhi, designed by English architect Edwin Lutyens, home to grand landmarks such as Rashtrapati Bhavan (the presidential residence) and India Gate.

A few hours south, Agra – the Mughal capital for over 130 years – draws travellers with the Taj Mahal and red sandstone Agra Fort, two of the city’s three UNESCO-listed sites. Eastward, Lucknow offers Islamic and British Raj-era architecture and lively bazaars, where you can shop for delicate chikankari-style embroidery and fragrant attar (perfumes). Further north, Punjab is home to the Golden Temple of Amritsar; Sikhism’s holiest shrine, its gold-plated exterior shimmers in the surrounding sacred pool. Nearby, Chandigarh, shared capital of Punjab and Haryana, embodies modern India with wide boulevards and bold brutalist buildings designed by Le Corbusier in 1950.