# Northern India

Northern India is the most-populous and the most-visited part of the country. It mainly consists of the Gangetic Plains, the Thar Desert, the northern Himalayan region and the northern parts of the Deccan.

## Regions

* Himalayan North (Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand) Mountainous and beautiful, a tourist destination for the adventurous and the spiritual. This region contains some of India's most visited hill stations and religious places.
* The Plains (Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh) The plains, India's breadbasket, are watered by the holy rivers Ganges and Yamuna and their tributaries. The region also features the country's capital, Delhi, Agra of Taj Mahal fame and the holy cities of Mathura, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. Many of the events that shaped India's history took place in this region.
* Western India (Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan) Home to the vast Thar Desert; the colourful palaces, forts and cities of Rajasthan; the country's most vibrant and biggest city, Mumbai; the mesmerising rock-cut caves of Ajanta and Ellora in Maharashtra; pristine forests; the wonderful beaches of Goa; the Asiatic lions of Gujarat in Gir jungles; and the rapidly developing cities of Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Pune.
* Eastern India (Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Sikkim, West Bengal) Economically less developed, but culturally rich and perhaps the most welcoming to outsiders. Features Kolkata, once the capital of British India, and the temple cities of Puri, Bhubaneswar and Konark. The region stretches from the mountains to the coast, resulting in fascinating variations in climate. It is also the mineral storehouse of India, having the country's largest and richest mines.

## Cities

* 30.73527876.7911111 Chandigarh — the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, designed by Le Corbusier
* 28.66666777.2166672 Delhi — the bustling capital of India and the heart of Northern India
* 26.91666775.8666673 Jaipur — the Pink City, a major exhibit of the Hindu Rajput culture of medieval Northern India
* 22.57267288.3638824 Kolkata — the cultural capital of India, known as the City of Joy, and home to numerous colonial buildings
* 19.07583372.87755 Mumbai — the largest city and the financial capital of India, the city that never sleeps, home of "Bollywood", the Hindi film industry
* 19.885.8166676 Puri — one of the four sacred Hindu dhams, Lord Jagannath temple, famous sea beach
* 31.10333377.1722227 Shimla — capital of Himachal Pradesh, perched high on the Himalayas, more than 2 km above sea level
* 34.09111174.8061118 Srinagar — the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Famous for Dal Lake and in a valley surrounded by the picturesque Himalayas
* 25.31888983.0127789 Varanasi — considered the most sacred Hindu city, on the banks of the Ganges, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world

## Talk

Hindi is the lingua franca of Northern India and many non-native speakers in the region can understand some level of Hindi. Besides, the region is home to almost all of the Indo-Aryan languages, which are derived from Sanskrit. The Indo-Aryan languages other than Hindi include Bengali, Gujarati, Konkani, Marathi, Odia, Maithili and Sindhi.