The
most convenient entry point into Gujarat is through the metropolis of
Ahmedabad.
The city contains some very fine museums, the Calico Museum of Textiles being
considered among the world’s finest.
Ahmedabad’s walled city is a living testimony to its heritage of crafts
as women walk by in dazzling embroidered garments and flashing ethnic silver
jewellery.
Traditional Ahmedabad combines mosques of inspired workmanship, wooden Jain
temples, unique stone stepwells and houses with ornately carved wooden balconies
and window screens.
Modern Ahmedabad, just across the River Sabarmati spanned by four bridges, is
a showpiece of contemporary architecture with designs by Le Corbusier, Louis
Kahn and the best known indian architects.
Ahmedabad is a convenient base for a number of excursions, Modhera being the
best known. 106 km away, this is one of the very few sun temples in the country.
Gujarat’s loveliest beach – and the state is well endowed with them
– is Ahmedpur Mandvi whose chief attraction is the ethnic beach resort.
Cottages modelled on rural Gujarati architecture look out onto a secluded beach,
one of the state’s chief centres for water sports.
