Mysuru

The Wadiyar palace, rebuilt in the Indo-Saracenic style by 1912 after fire gutted the old one in 1897. Tens of thousands of bulbs switch on at once on Sunday and public holiday evenings, and shoes are handed in before going inside.

Chamundeshwari Temple crowns the hill southeast of the city, reachable on foot up roughly 1,000 stone steps. Partway up sits a large Nandi bull hewn from one boulder; climb in the cool of early morning to stay ahead of the heat.

Terraced gardens beneath the Krishna Raja Sagara dam, some 20 kilometres northwest of the city, where a musical fountain show plays after dark. The fountains only run in the evening and daytime offers little, so aim to arrive around dusk.

An old covered market whose narrow aisles overflow with flower garlands, bananas and cones of kumkum powder. Come for the early morning flower rush and you can see sellers' fingers threading jasmine buds onto string.

A neo-Gothic church begun in 1936 with Cologne Cathedral as its model, its twin spires lifting above the city. The crypt under the altar keeps a relic of St Philomena, and sightseeing is limited while Mass is said.

Tipu Sultan's old capital sits on a Kaveri river island roughly 15 kilometres north of Mysuru. Every wall of his summer palace, Daria Daulat Bagh, is painted with the 1780 battle of Pollilur, and a stone marks where he fell in 1799.

A Vishnu temple raised in 1258 under the Hoysalas on a star-shaped plinth, its outer walls covered edge to edge in friezes of gods, elephants and horsemen. It stands in a village some 35 kilometres east of the city and is no longer used for worship.

Islets in the Kaveri where storks, cormorants and pelicans nest, approached by rowing boat. Mugger crocodiles sun themselves on the rocks, while the birds are busiest in the morning and late afternoon.

A royal palace of 1861 now used as an art gallery, holding oils by Raja Ravi Varma and gilded Mysore-style paintings. Haldankar's Glow of Hope, a woman carrying a lamp, hangs alone in a darkened room so that the flame seems to shine.

A zoo that started out as a royal garden in 1892, one of the oldest in India. Shady paths wind past gorillas, giraffes and elephants, and the gates stay shut on Tuesdays.

A lake at the foot of Chamundi Hill right beside the zoo, which looks after it too. On the shore stand a big netted walk-through aviary and a butterfly park. Come on a winter morning, when migrants are in, and pelicans and storks crowd the islands.

An open-air railway museum beside Mysore station, opened in 1979, with steam engines and vintage carriages in rows. The queen's private saloon car has its own kitchen and toilet inside. A miniature train carries children round the yard.

A temple town on a rocky hill about 50 km north, where the philosopher Ramanuja long lived. Steps link the Cheluvanarayana temple below with the Yoga Narasimha temple on the summit. The tamarind rice called puliyogare served in its eateries is famous.

A village on the Kaveri to the southeast where sand dunes rolled in and buried the old temples. You cross the sand barefoot to the few temples dug back out. By midday the sand scorches bare feet; mornings and late afternoons are kinder.

Falls where the Kaveri splits in two, viewed separately from the Gaganachukki and Bharachukki lookouts. A hydroelectric station opened here in 1902, among the earliest in Asia. Visit as the monsoon winds down, when the flow is high and the falls spread wide.