India

Mumbai's Dharavi is one of the most productive slums in the world, generating over $1 billion annually.

Delhi has been continuously inhabited for over 5,000 years and has served as the capital of at least seven consecutive empires, giving it more historical layers than almost any city on Earth.

Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world — over 3,000 years old. Mark Twain wrote: 'Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend.'

Ahmedabad was India's first UNESCO World Heritage City (2017). Mahatma Gandhi launched the Dandi Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram here in 1930 — you can visit the ashram today.

Meghalaya receives the world's highest annual rainfall — Mawsynram village records an average of 11,871 mm per year (about 40 times London's annual rainfall). The state is governed by matrilineal societies (Khasi and Garo tribes) where lineage and property pass through the mother — one of the few functioning matrilineal societies in the world. 'Meghalaya' means 'abode of clouds' in Sanskrit.

Nagaland is home to 16 major Naga tribes, each with its own distinct language, costume, and traditions — tribes that were historically headhunting enemies of each other. The last recorded headhunting raid occurred in 1969. Today over 90% of Nagas are Christian — the result of American Baptist missionary work in the 19th century — making it one of the most intensely Christian regions in Asia. The state has no alcohol prohibition but produces no commercial wine.

Aizawl is the only state capital in India with no traffic lights — the city is too hilly for them to be practical. Mizoram has India's highest literacy rate (91.3%) and lowest crime rate. The Mizo people have a tradition called 'Tlawmngaihna' — an untranslatable concept of selfless service, hospitality, and putting others before oneself — which functions as the unofficial moral code of Mizo society.

Assam produces over 50% of India's tea output — and 6% of global tea production. The Brahmaputra River, which flows through the state, is one of only a few rivers in the world classified as male in Hindu tradition. During the 2004 floods, the Brahmaputra was over 80 km wide in places. Assam is also one of only two regions in the world (the other being Kaziranga) where tigers, elephants, rhinos, and wild buffalo coexist in the wild.

Kolkata is the only Indian city still running hand-pulled rickshaws — a practice banned elsewhere but maintained by the city's High Court. The Howrah Bridge (1943) carries an estimated 100,000 vehicles and 150,000 pedestrians daily with no nuts or bolts — the entire structure is held together by rivets. Kolkata has won more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other city in Asia (Rabindranath Tagore 1913, Mother Teresa 1979, Amartya Sen 1998).

Bengaluru hosts over 40% of India's IT exports, making it responsible for a significant share of the global technology services market. The city is also home to ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) — which put a spacecraft in Mars orbit (Mangalyaan) on its first attempt in 2014 at a cost lower than the production budget of the Hollywood film Gravity. Bengaluru has more pubs per capita than any other Indian city.

Ahmedabad is India's first UNESCO World Heritage City (inscribed 2017). Mahatma Gandhi established his Sabarmati Ashram here in 1917 — it was the base of the Indian independence movement and the starting point of the 1930 Salt March (385 km to the sea). Ahmedabad is also the home of the world's largest stock exchange building (BSE) outside of Mumbai and is the diamond-polishing capital of the world — 90% of the world's rough diamonds are cut and polished here.

The Dal Lake 'floating gardens' (rad) are man-made islands of vegetation woven together over centuries — vegetable farmers grow tomatoes, cucumbers, and lotus roots in plots that literally float on the lake and can be poled to market by shikara. Kashmir saffron (Crocus sativus Kashmirianus) grown in the Pampore crocus fields is among the world's most prized — it takes 150,000 flowers to produce 1 kg of dried saffron, and the harvest window is just two weeks in October.

Vrindavan has over 5,000 temples in a town of 63,000 people — more temples per capita than anywhere else in India. The town is mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana as the forest where Krishna spent his childhood playing with the gopis (cowgirls) — making it 5,000 years old in Hindu tradition. The town is also home to thousands of widows who come from across India to spend their final years close to Krishna — a tradition that ISKCON and local NGOs are now working to transform through empowerment programmes.

Jaipur was the world's first planned city with a grid layout and zone-based urban design when it was built in 1727 — 40 years before Washington DC. The entire old city was painted pink in 1876 to welcome Prince Albert (later Edward VII) — the colour stuck and gave Jaipur its eternal nickname. Jaipur's gem-cutting industry processes over $800 million worth of coloured gemstones annually, with over 25,000 artisans cutting everything from emeralds to rubies.