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Sinauli

Sinauli

heritage site · Uttar Pradesh

Two seasons of digging, in 2005-06 and again in 2018, turned this patch of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab into an argument.

State
Uttar Pradesh
Type
Heritage Site

Two seasons of digging, in 2005-06 and again in 2018, turned this patch of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab into an argument. The Archaeological Survey of India found wooden coffin burials, copper swords and helmets, and carts with solid disk wheels sheathed in copper, dated to roughly 2000-1500 BCE. The excavation director called the carts chariots and saw Vedic ritual in the burials; other scholars point out that solid wheels belong to carts, and Asko Parpola reads them as ox-drawn. This is a dig, not a monument. Come for the argument, not for something to photograph.

Sinauli is known for

Bronze Age cart burialsCopper swords and helmetsSolid-disk wheel cartsASI excavation site

Sinauli guide & itineraries

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Taj Mahal (Agra)

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Agra

Agra

Almost everyone rushes Agra as a day trip from Delhi, and almost everyone regrets it — the Taj deserves a dawn and the city has a second monument nearly as good. Go to the Taj at sunrise, and know that it closes on Fridays. The marble changes colour through the first hour in a way no photograph has ever conveyed; by nine the light has flattened and the crowd has arrived. If you only have one slot, take that one. Agra Fort is the thing people skip and should not. Shah Jahan spent his last years imprisoned in it, looking downriver at the tomb he built for his wife, and you can stand where he stood. It is a working piece of Mughal military architecture rather than a monument to grief, and it is quieter. For the view most people never see, cross the river to Mehtab Bagh in the late afternoon and look at the Taj from the back, across the Yamuna, with nobody in front of you. The city outside the monuments is hard work — persistent touts, heavy traffic, little to hold you. Sleep here for the sunrise, then move on.

Ayodhya

Ayodhya

Ayodhya is an ancient city on the banks of the sacred Saryu, revered as the birthplace of Lord Rama and one of the seven primary holy cities of Hinduism. Since the consecration of the newly built Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, the city has been rebuilt around it on a scale that has changed the place entirely. Centuries-old temples now sit alongside new roads and walkways laid for visitors. The Ram Mandir, constructed without a single piece of iron or steel, is approached across wide pedestrian plazas. Climb the high stone steps of Hanuman Garhi, or come down to the Ram Ki Pauri ghats in the evening when the lights are on the water — the devotion is the first thing you notice.

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