India Guide
Himachal Pradesh
Shimla
Shimla, Himachal's capital, is India's largest and most famous hill-station, where much of the action in Rudyard Kipling's colonial classic Kim took place. While the city is a favourite spot for Indian families and honeymooners, its size does little to win it popularity among Western tourists who tend to pass through on their way to Manali.
Named after its patron goddess, Shamla Devi, the tiny village on this spot was "discovered" by British surveyors in 1817. Glowing reports of its beauty and climate filtered to Calcutta, and in 1864 Shimla – by now an elegant town of mansions, churches and cricket pitches – was declared the Government of India's official hot-season HQ.
Today, Shimla is still a major holiday resort, popular mainly with nouveau riche Punjabis and Delhi-ites who flock here in their thousands during the May–June run-up to the monsoons, and again in September and October. Its jaded colonial charm also appeals to foreigners looking for a taste of the Raj.
Although Shimla and its satellite districts sprawl over the flanks of five or more hills, the centre is fairly compact, its busy social scene revolving around the broad and breezy piazza that straddles a shoulder of high ground known as the "Ridge". The Victorian Gothic spire of Christ Church is the most prominent landmark, while crowds gather to gossip atScandal Point, at the other end of the Ridge, in the famous mid-afternoon meet.
From the Ridge, a tangle of roads and lanes tumbles down in stages, each layer connected to the next by stone steps. The Mall, the main pedestrian thoroughfare, curves around the south slope of the hill. Walk down any of the narrow lanes leading off it, and you're plunged into a warren of twisting backstreets. Shimla's bazaar is the hill station at its most vibrant – a maze of dishevelled shacks, brightly lit stalls and minarets, cascading in a clutter of corrugated iron to the edge of Cart Road.
Read more ▼
- Practical Information ▼
- Sight(s) ▼