Visit Madurai

Fourteen gopuram towers over Madurai, every inch of them crowded with painted gods.

The yoga capital of the world on the Ganges, evening aarti and whitewater rafting below the Himalayas.

Rock-cut cave temples in Maharashtra, crowned by the monolithic Kailasa temple.

Boulder-strewn ruins of the Vijayanagara empire along the Tungabhadra river.

The Tamil north, a Dutch fort, the Nallur Kandaswamy temple and the crab curry.

Japan's first capital: the Great Buddha of Todai-ji and 1,200 bowing deer in the park around it.

The gilded Toshogu shrine of the Tokugawa shoguns in a cedar forest, with the Kegon waterfall above.

The Great Buddha sitting in the open air, Zen temples and a surf beach, an hour from Tokyo.