Sambhar Salt Lake

India's largest inland salt lake is a landscape with almost nothing vertical in it: white and silver pans running out to a flat horizon, narrow-gauge rails laid across them for the salt trains, and a sky that the wet ground repeats back. Photographers and film crews have known it for years. From November to February large flocks of flamingos and other waterbirds settle here, and the Shakambhari Devi temple stands on the shore. The drive takes 1.5 to 2.5 hours, so leave early and plan to be on the pans at sunset.

Mirror-flat salt pans and winter flamingos: the strangest landscape near Jaipur