Junagadh

An old Nawabi city at the foot of sacred Mount Girnar, with the distinctive Uparkot Fort and Mahabat Maqbara, and the gateway to Gir's Asiatic lions.

Junagadh lies in the south of the Saurashtra peninsula in Gujarat, India, at the foot of the sacred mountain Girnar, and has a population of about 320,000. Its history goes back to the Maurya Empire: the Ashokan rock edicts and the ancient Uparkot Fort bear witness to more than 2,000 years of history. From 1748 to 1947 it was ruled by the Babi dynasty of Nawabs, who left eclectic buildings such as the Mahabat Maqbara, and the dispute over its accession during Partition gave it a notable place in modern history. The climate is hot. The best season is November–March, with daytime temperatures of 25–30°C; April–June can exceed 40°C, and July–September brings monsoon rains, when Gir National Park is closed. Sightseeing falls into three parts: the old city, with the Mahabat Maqbara, bazaars and Sakkarbaug Zoo; Uparkot Fort, with its Buddhist caves, stepwell and ancient well, which takes half a day; and the east of town, with the Ashokan edicts, Damodar Kund, Bhavnath Temple and Mount Girnar – the climb (or cable car) takes a full day. About 55 km to the south, Sasan Gir is the only wild habitat of the Asiatic lion; plan a day trip or an overnight stay for a safari. Getting there: the nearest airports are Rajkot (about 100 km) and Diu. Trains link Junagadh with Ahmedabad (about 7 hours) and Rajkot. Auto-rickshaws are the main way around town, and you can hire a car to Sasan Gir. Allow 2–3 days. Note that Gujarat is a dry state; start the climb early in the morning; book Gir safari permits in advance on the official website; and remove your shoes and dress modestly at pilgrimage sites.

Top sights

• Girnar – The highest sacred mountain in Gujarat, linked by nearly 10,000 stone steps to a cluster of Jain temples and the Datatreya Temple at the su…
• Gir National Park – The only wild habitat of Asiatic lions in the world, where you can ride a jeep into the forest from Sasan Gir to look for lions.
• Uparkot Fort – A fort more than two thousand years old on a hill east of the city, with Buddhist caves, a stepwell, a mosque and ancient cannons, and swee…
• Mahabat Maqbara – A late-19th-century royal mausoleum that blends Indo-Islamic, Gothic and European elements, known for its spiral-staircase minarets.
• Ashokan Rock Edicts – A giant boulder inscribed with Ashoka's fourteen edicts, which also carries 5th-century inscriptions from Rudradaman and Skandagupta.
• Girnar Ropeway – A mountain ropeway opened in 2020 that climbs about 8 minutes from the foot of the mountain to near Ambaji Temple, sparing you thousands of…
• Devalia Safari Park – A fenced lion-viewing area near Sasan Gir, where a one-hour safari bus ride almost always brings sightings of Asiatic lions.
• Adi Kadi Vav – An ancient stepwell carved from rock inside Uparkot Fort, where 120 steps descend into a narrow crevice between towering walls, deep and ma…
• Navghan Kuvo – A thousand-year-old well inside Uparkot Fort, where a spiral stone staircase winds down a shaft beneath a carved porch, about 52 meters dee…
• Uparkot Buddhist Caves – Three-tiered Buddhist monastery caves from the 2nd to 4th centuries CE, with finely carved pillars; they are among the oldest remains insid…
• Bhavnath Mahadev Temple – An ancient Shiva temple at the foot of Girnar; the annual Shivaratri fair draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and Naga sadhus.
• Damodar Kund – A sacred water tank on the way up Girnar, where devotees bathe and scatter the ashes of the dead; beside it stands the Damodarji Temple.
• Sakkarbaug Zoo – An old zoo founded in 1863 and the Asiatic lion breeding center, where you can see lions up close.
• Khapra Kodiya Caves – Junagadh's oldest cave complex, carved around the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE as rainy-season residences for Buddhist monks.
• Willingdon Dam – A small reservoir at the foot of Girnar that overflows after the monsoon rains, a place where locals take evening strolls and watch the mou…

Where to eat

• Geeta Lodge Restaurant – A long-standing vegetarian thali spot in Junagadh; its unlimited Gujarati home-style thali has ranked top on TripAdviso…
• Petals Restaurant – A vegetarian restaurant on the first floor of the Lotus Hotel beside the railway station, well regarded for its unlimit…
• Utsav Restaurant – A pure vegetarian restaurant near the bus station, serving Gujarati thali at lunch and Punjabi and tandoor dishes at di…

Itineraries

• Gujarat Grand Loop – Starting from Ahmedabad, loop around the Great Rann of Kutch, the sacred sites of Saurashtra, and Gir National Park.
• Saurashtra Sacred Sites & Asiatic Lions – Follow the peninsula's coast to connect the Blackbuck plains, the sacred Jain hill, Portuguese-influenced Diu, Gir Nati…