Serendipity Photo Prompt: Small Town Summer
India is diverse in culture, topography and climate. Rightly so.The most hectic season of this tropical country, summer scorches almost all the parts of India with sweltering heat.
Those living in north, central and south India are feeling the heat of summer and waiting for the divine showers but western India is wet thoroughly. Monsoon is here in Aurangabad, a comparatively smaller city than near by mega cities like Mumbai and Pune. It is presently our home town.
Surprisingly this year is not as hot as last year. We came here last year during same time on posting.  We had come from Shillong and badly missed it for long. Slowly this place has started growing on us. This year weather is exactly like Shillong. Very cool and rainy. The rain has drenched us to our bone.
Yesterday we went for a drive. In fact this is the time when one must go for long drives as nature is at its best in Aurangabad, Maharashtra ( this state It lies in western ghats of India )
Ghats were covered with mist. I could feel soft drizzle on my face along with the breeze. How could I miss taking pictures of the ghats ? I shot sitting in the car while Tarun was driving and he bluntly rejected my request of parking the car to a side as the road was too curvaceous to halt.
The Western Ghats or Sahyadri are a mountain range that runs almost parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, located entirely in India. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity in the world. It is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of India. 
. The range starts near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of the Tapti river, and runs approximately 1,600 km (990 mi) through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu ending at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India.
This ghat is very close to our house, known as  Khuldabad. We frequently drive on our favorite route. The frequency increases during rainy season which is from June to September.
Khuldabad is surrounded by a high fortified wall built by Aurangzeb. It has seven gates. The gateway in the direction of Aurangabad is approached by a paved ascent which continue inside the town for about 200 to 300 feet. The wall has collapsed at many places and may collapse totally before long.
We came back after spending an hour in beautiful and mystic surroundings. It was simply the best day.
Some more information on Khuldabad Ghat:
KHULDABAD – “MECCA” OF THE EAST
The ancient walled town of Khuldabad, near Aurangabad is where the Mughal Emperor Aurangzab was buried. It is a place of pilgrimage for the Indian Muslim community and a major centre for the five-day “Urs” celebrations held annually.
AROUND KHULDABAD
Aurangzeb Tomb :- This is located within a fortified city with 7 gates built by Aurangzeb.
Bani Begum Garden :- The Bani Begum Gardens are located about 24 km from Aurangabad. The fluted pillars, huge domes and aesthetic fountains showcase the architectural splendour of a bygone era.
Shri Bhadra Maruti Temple :- The only temple of Lord Hanuman of its kind outside prayag in Allahabad
Malik Amber Tomb :- lies on the way to Mhaismal
Mhaismal :- A Hill station of Marathwada
Shulibhanjan :- The Summer capital of the Satvahan dynasty has 7 different ponds of a water system.
Pariyon Ka Talab :- It has a Dargah and old amphitheatre of the Satvahan time. Source: Visit India
10 Responses
What a wonderful place to live. Between the archaeology, the temples, the mountains, the mist, it sounds kind of like heaven. It looks beautiful too. It is very hot and humid here, right now, so hot and humid that it is hard to breathe outside. Few people understand how hot and damp it gets around here in the summer. They don’t understand that this is a region of weather extremes. I am patient because soon enough, everything will change again. I wish I could visit you. I’m pretty sure we would love it. Not the heat, but everything else and especially, you 🙂
Thank you so much for quickest and sweetest comments. I love it !!! I can very well understand humidity as I belong to Delhi. People are frying like potatoes over there. I told my parents to come here to get rid of hot and humid weather of Delhi. They would be visiting us soon. I would love to host you and take you everywhere…..temples, caves, forts and ghats.
It’s quite hot enough here. I can only imagine how hot Delhi is. You must live at a high altitude. I’ve seen that in your pictures. That makes such a big difference in the air.
wow the roads sure are narrow, what a beautiful and historic place 🙂
It looks heaven in rains. It will turn brown and dry in winter 🙁
That’s what our grass is like lately with the the drought we’ve been getting :-\
How wonderful to live close to this historic place. 🙂 Beautiful image of the gate.
Thank you. There were 52 such gates once upon a time but now only 12 – 13 are left. Due to increasing population and traffic they had to broadened out. Some of them exist in ruins and some vanished with time but the left ones are still standing with pride.
My one time Indian/Pakistani boss once told my that whilst we were still sitting in the trees eating bananas or whatever, his nation were building palaces. Quite near the truth, and surrounded by wonderful landscape as you photos show.
There were around 506 princely states in India before East India company came and established Colonial rule here. So you can imagine the total number of palaces if each state had its own. Much of the wealth was seized during Muslim invasion & british rule in India. Our temples and palaces were abode of wealth during medieval period.