Haridwar

👥 310K population 40M Kumbh Mela 2010

Where the Ganga leaves the mountains for the plains stands one of Hinduism's great sacred cities: every evening Har Ki Pauri fills for the Ganga aarti, a river of lamps, bells and chanting. India's most stirring riverside ritual, and a host of the Kumbh Mela.

Highlights

Om Setu

Har Ki PauriThe center of the universe

Haridwar BazaarHidden architecture above the crowds

What to see 24

Om SetuDetails →

Har Ki PauriThe center of the universeDetails →

Parad Shivling at Harihar AshramA 150-kilo mercury Shivling under an old rudraksha tree, in a courtyard that stays emptyDetails →

Sapt Rishi AshramSeven strands of Ganga over white sand, and a morning bathing scene without the crushDetails →

Kushavarta GhatAhilyabai Holkar's eighteenth-century stone, and river ritual at a walking paceDetails →

Bharat Mata MandirEight themed floors instead of one altar: an hour here doubles as a short course in Indian historyDetails →

Mansa DeviA view from aboveDetails →

Piran Kaliyar SharifA shrine both communities pray at, with qawwali in the courtyard after darkDetails →

Chandi Devi Temple & RopewayThe ropeway is half the reason to go: the Ganga valley opens out underneath itDetails →

Daksheswara Mahadev TempleThe month of Shravan turns quiet Kankhal into the centre of Shiva devotion hereDetails →

Maya Devi TempleThe temple the city was named after, and thousands walk past its door on the way to the waterDetails →

Sureshwari Devi TempleA forest track with deer on it, ending at a Durga shrine the tour circuits skipDetails →

Neel Dhara Pakshi ViharMigratory flocks on the sandbars at sunrise, ten minutes from the main ghatDetails →

Rajaji National Park, ChillaWild elephants and Shivalik forest twenty minutes from the ghats, mid-November to mid-JuneDetails →

Bhimgoda TankA Mahabharata episode you can stand in, ten minutes from the main ghatDetails →

Sati KundOnly makes sense together with Daksheswara next door: one story told across two stopsDetails →

Haridwar BazaarHidden architecture above the crowds

Gurukul Kangri Archaeological MuseumLocal excavation finds kept by the university that dug them up, in a campus almost no visitor enters

Ma Anandamayi Ashram & SamadhiPerhaps the stillest courtyard in Kankhal, kept around a much-loved mystic's samadhi

Shantikunj (Gayatri Teerth)One of India's largest spiritual movements running at full scale, and open to anyone who walks in

Pawan Dham (Glass Temple)Twenty minutes inside a kaleidoscope, on the road heading north out of town

Jhilmil Jheel Conservation ReserveUttarakhand's only barasingha herd, in a Terai marsh most visitors have never heard of

Randhir Book Shop (Randhir Prakashan)Where North India's priests restock: a working shop rather than a curated one

Gurukul Ayurved Pharmacy (Gurukul Kangri Pharmacy)A century-old pharmacy older than the ayurveda brands, which it once manufactured for

Everything about Haridwar

On the map

24 places · the full map is in the app