Champaner-Pavagadh

Two histories sit on top of each other at Champaner. On the plain is a fifteenth-century Islamic city; above it, on a volcanic plug of red rock some 800 metres high, is a Hindu shrine far older. Pavagadh was the fort of the Rajput Patai Rawal until 1484, when Sultan Mahmud Begada took it after a long siege, moved his capital here from Ahmedabad and renamed the place Muhammadabad.

For a little over twenty years it was the richest city in Gujarat. Then Humayun sacked it in 1535 and the jungle took the rest. What survives is remarkable and mostly empty: the Jama Masjid of 1513 with 172 pillars, seven mihrabs and two thirty-metre minarets over a carved entrance porch; the Kevada and Nagina mosques standing alone in fields; the ruined Sat Manzil; and a helical stepwell that spirals down into cool dark.

UNESCO listed the whole park in 2004. Above, the Kalika Mata temple draws a constant stream of pilgrims as one of the Shakti Peethas, where Sati's right toe is said to have fallen. A ropeway lifts you most of the way and about 250 steps do the rest, past tea stalls and sindoor sellers.

Go on a weekday, because Navratri turns the hill into a river of people.