Top 10 things to see in India

Shah Jahan's red sandstone palace fortress in Old Delhi, where India's Prime Minister speaks every Independence Day.

A 73 metre tall minaret begun in the 12th century, surrounded by the ruins of Delhi's first mosque.

A red sandstone and marble garden tomb in Delhi, built decades before the Taj Mahal and often called its inspiration.

The white marble tomb Shah Jahan built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, and the reason almost every first trip to India passes through Agra.

The red sandstone fortress of the Mughal emperors, with marble palaces inside and views along the river to the Taj Mahal.

Akbar's abandoned red sandstone capital on a ridge outside Agra, often visited on the drive to Jaipur.

A honey coloured hilltop palace above Maota Lake outside Jaipur, with mirrored halls and long views over the old ramparts.

Jaipur's Palace of the Winds, a pink sandstone screen of 953 small windows overlooking the old city's busiest street.

The royal palace at the heart of the Pink City, still home to Jaipur's royal family, beside the Jantar Mantar observatory.

India's most popular tiger reserve, where tigers roam among lakes and ruined pavilions below a thousand year old hilltop fort.

One of India's mightiest forts, rising from a rock above the blue houses of Jodhpur, with an outstanding palace museum inside.

Rajasthan's most romantic city, with a vast palace and white island palaces rising from Lake Pichola.

A living golden sandstone fort in the Thar Desert, still home to thousands of people, near the Sam sand dunes.

Stone steps along the Ganges in India's holiest city, best seen from a boat at dawn and at the evening aarti ceremony.

A maze of palm lined canals, lakes and rice paddies in southern India, best explored on an overnight houseboat.

Rolling tea estates in the cool hills of Kerala's Western Ghats, often paired with a houseboat on the backwaters.

Sikhism's holiest shrine, a gilded temple in a sacred pool that feeds tens of thousands of visitors free every day.

India's oldest national park, in the Himalayan foothills, with tigers, wild elephants and river forests.

A thousand year old group of Hindu and Jain temples famous for their exquisitely detailed sculpture.

Thirty four Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves cut into a cliff, including the Kailasa temple carved from a single rock.

The ruins of the Vijayanagara empire's capital, scattered across a landscape of giant boulders and banana fields.