Kailash Mandir, Sikandra

Thirteen kilometres out of central Agra, where Sikandra meets the Yamuna, an old Shiva temple sits above the water, counted among the oldest shrines in the district. Its twin Shivlings are tied by legend to the sage Jamadagni and to Parashurama. Most of the year the place is quiet enough to hear the river. Then Shravan comes round, roughly August to September, and the Kailash Mela fills it: thousands of devotees a day, one of Agra's biggest living festivals and a side of the city the monument route never shows. Free to enter, shoes off at the steps.

One of the district's oldest Shiva shrines, right on the river, and in Shravan, a mela of thousands