Khajuraho

Khajuraho was the ceremonial capital of the Chandela Rajputs, who raised some 85 temples here in a single burst of building between roughly 950 and 1050 CE. Around 25 survive, saved by the forest that swallowed the town after the dynasty faded and by the British engineer T. S.

Burt, who was led to them in 1838. The temples stand on high platforms in three clusters. The Western Group is the great one: Kandariya Mahadeva, whose 31-metre shikhara rises like a mountain range of smaller spires, the Lakshmana with its friezes of processions and hunts, the Vishvanatha and the Devi Jagadambi.

The Eastern Group holds the Jain temples of Parsvanatha and Adinatha with some of the most delicate carving on the site; the Southern Group's Duladeo and Chaturbhuj sit quiet among fields. The erotic panels are a small fraction of the sculpture; the rest is apsaras pulling a thorn from a foot, writing letters, applying kohl, and armies on the march. Come at opening time, walk the Western Group clockwise while the sandstone turns from grey to honey, then return after four for the low light on Kandariya.

Evenings bring the sound and light show and, in February, the Khajuraho Dance Festival, when classical dancers perform against the floodlit Chitragupta temple. Raneh Falls on the Ken River and the tigers of Panna National Park are within an hour's drive.