Kashmir
The Valley
The Himalaya
Alpine lakes, houseboats and gardens beneath the mountains.
Dal Lake sits inside a bowl of mountains so consistently photographed that the reality can still surprise: the water moves, the light changes hour to hour, and the carved-walnut houseboats moored along its edge have been family businesses for generations, each one different from the next.
The Mughal emperors built their pleasure gardens here for the same reason travellers still come — Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh, terraced in the classical charbagh style, remain some of the most deliberately beautiful gardens in India, built for a court that measured luxury in shade and running water.
Worth Your Time
- A shikara ride on Dal Lake at dawn
- Shalimar Bagh's Mughal terraces
- Houseboat life on the lake
- Gulmarg's alpine meadows
