Kolkata (or Calcutta as it is otherwise known) lies on the River Hooghly, delighting and distressing its visitors at the same time.
It is an affronting mix of poverty and splendour, of human suffering and opulence. Kolkata is India’s second-largest city, so it’s polluted, overcrowded, and congested, but also full of peaceful gardens, grand memorial monuments, quiet mosques, Jain temples, and majestic palaces with sprawling green grounds. Here you’ll see slums, squalor, and desperation alongside intellect, culture, and consumerism. For visitors, the safest and most interesting parts of the city to explore are south of the bridge at Howrah, around Chowringhee and BBD Bagh.
