Gujarat
The most convenient entry point
into Gujarat is through the
metropolis of Ahmedabad. The
city contains some very fine
museums, the Calico Museum of
Textiles being considered among
the world’s finest. Ahmedabad’s
walled city is a living testimony
to its heritage of crafts as
women walk by in dazzling embroidered
garments and flashing ethnic
silver jewellery. Traditional
Ahmedabad combines mosques of
inspired workmanship, wooden
Jain temples, unique stone stepwells
and houses with ornately carved
wooden balconies and window
screens.
Modern Ahmedabad,
just across the River Sabarmati
spanned by four bridges, is
a showpiece of contemporary
architecture with designs
by Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn
and the best known Indian
architects. Ahmedabad is a
convenient base for a number
of excursions, Modhera being
the best known. 106 km away,
this is one of the very few
sun temples in the country.
Gujarat’s loveliest beach – and the state is well endowed with them – is Ahmedpur Mandvi whose chief attraction is the ethnic beach resort. Cottages modelled on rural Gujarati architecture look out onto a secluded beach, one of the state’s chief centres for water sports:.
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