Shimla

Shimla was the summer capital of British India between 1864 and 1939 — the entire Imperial government, viceroy and all, would relocate here from Calcutta (and later Delhi) every April through October to escape the plains heat. The town was built along a 12 km ridge at 2,200 metres, with The Mall and The Ridge as its central spine: Christ Church (the second-oldest in northern India, completed 1857), Gaiety Theatre, the Town Hall, and Scandal Point all face onto this stretch. The Viceregal Lodge — now the Indian Institute of Advanced Study — is the most photographed colonial building, a Jacobethan-style structure on Observatory Hill where the partition of India and Pakistan was negotiated in 1947. The Kalka–Shimla Railway, opened 1903, climbs 96 km from the plains through 102 tunnels and over 800 bridges; UNESCO inscribed it in 2008 as part of 'Mountain Railways of India'. Shimla's population swells from a permanent ~170,000 to multiples of that during peak summer (May–June) and the New Year week. Snow typically falls between mid-December and February. The Mall is pedestrianised; vehicles are restricted to the lower roads. Day-trips include Kufri (16 km, skiing in season), Naldehra (golf course laid out by Lord Curzon), and Chail (the highest cricket ground in the world, at 2,400 m).