Guwahati
Largest City Of Northeast India; Home Of The Kamakhya Temple, One Of The Principal Shakti Peethas · Guwahati, Assam
The largest city of northeast India, on the south bank of the Brahmaputra in Assam, and the gateway through which almost every traveller to the region passes on the way to Kaziranga, Shillong, Tawang or Nagaland. Its great sight is the Kamakhya temple on Nilachal hill above the river, one of the most important Shakti shrines in India, where the goddess is worshipped in the form of a natural cleft in the rock rather than an image, and where animal sacrifice still takes place. Its Ambubachi Mela, in June, draws huge numbers of pilgrims and tantric sadhus while the temple itself closes for three days. The Brahmaputra is the city's other attraction: sunset cruises, and a boat to Umananda, a tiny island in the river with a Shiva temple. The Assam State Museum, the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra cultural centre, and the Pobitora sanctuary, with a dense population of one-horned rhinos an hour away, fill out a stay. Guwahati is busy and congested, and most visitors give it one or two days before moving on.
Kamakhya Temple Road, Nilachal Hill, Guwahati, Assam, 781010, India
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED; confirm before planning. The typical pattern: Kamakhya opens around dawn, closes for a period around midday and reopens in the afternoon until evening, with special darshan counters opening early; it closes for three days in June for the Ambubachi Mela; Umananda ferries run in daylight only; river cruises run in the evening; the State Museum closes one day a week (check which). The traps: arriving at Kamakhya at midday into the closure or an hours-long queue, and missing the last ferry back.