Set apart from the rest of Asia by the supreme continental wall of the Himalayas, the Indian subcontinent touches three large bodies of water and is immediately recognizable on any world map. It is the huge, terrestrial beak between Africa and Indonesia. This thick, roughly triangular peninsula defines the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Arabian Sea to the west, and the India Ocean to the south.
 
India’s puzzle board of 28 states holds virtually every kind of landscape imaginable. An abundance of mountain ranges and national parks provide ample opportunity for eco-tourism and trekking, and its sheer size promises something for everyone. From its northernmost point on the Chinese border, India extends a good 2000 miles (3200 km) to its southern tip, where the island nation of Sri Lanka seems to be squeezed out of India like a great tear, the synapse forming the Gulf of Mannar. India’s northern border is dominated mostly by Nepal and the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain chain. Following the sweeping mountains to the northeast, its borders narrow to a small channel that passes between Nepal, Tibet, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, then spreads out again to meet Burma in an area called the “eastern triangle.” Apart from the Arabian Sea, its western border is defined exclusively by Pakistan.
 
India can be organized along the compass points. North India, shaped like a throat and two lungs, is the country’s largest region. It begins with the panhandle of Jammu and Kashmir, a dynamic area with terrain varying from arid mountains in the far north to the Lake Country and forests near Sringar and Jammu. Falling south along the Indus river valley, the North becomes flatter and more hospitable, widening into the fertile plains of Punjab to the west and the Himalayan foothills of Uttar Pradesh and the Ganges river valley to the East. Cramped between these two states is the capital city, Delhi. Te southwestern extremity of the North is the large state of Rajasthan, whose principal features are the Thar Desert and the stunning “pink city” of Jaipur. To the southeast is southern Uttar Pradesh and Agra, home of the famous Taj Mahal.
 
West India contains the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and part of the massive, central state of Madhya Pradesh. The west coast extends from the Gujarat peninsula down to Goa, and it is lined with some of India’s best beaches. The land along the coast is typically lush, with rainforests reaching southward from Mumbai all the way to Goa. A long mountain chain, the Western Ghats, separates the verdant coast from the Vindya Mountains and the dry Deccan plateau further inland.
Home of the sacred Ganges River and the majority of Himalayan foothills, East India begins with the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, which comprise the westernmost part of the region. East India also contains an area known as the eastern triangle, which is entirely distinct. This is the last gulp of land that extends beyond Bangladesh, culminating in the Naga Hills along the Burmese border.

                         India reaches its peninsular tip with South India, which begins with the Deccan in the north and ends with Kanniyakumari (Cape Comorin), where Hindus believe that bathing in the waters of the three oceans will wash away their sins. The states in South India are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and kerala- a tropical paradise of waving palms and sandy beaches. The southeast coast, mirroring the west, also rests snugly beneath a mountain range-the Eastern Ghats.

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