Things to do
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Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
Frederick William Stevens designed the terminus completed in 1888, a Victorian Gothic building with a stone dome, gargoyles and a booking hall of carved columns, now on the UNESCO list. Suburban trains still pour through it, which is the point of the place. The exterior is the main event, and floodlighting after dark brings out the carving.
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Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya
Behind the Gateway, a domed Indo Saracenic building of 1922 houses the city's main collection: Indus valley material, Gupta and Chalukya sculpture, Mughal and Deccani miniatures and a natural history gallery. George Wittet designed it, and the galleries run over three floors around a central hall. Two hours is a fair minimum for the sculpture and miniature galleries alone.
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Elephanta Caves
An hour on the water from the Gateway of India, the rock cut Shiva temples of Gharapuri island were carved between the fifth and eighth centuries and are held on the UNESCO list. The three headed Trimurti in the main cave stands close to six metres high. Ferries do not run on Mondays or through the heavy monsoon weeks, and a stepped climb leads up from the jetty.
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Gateway of India
Basalt and Gujarati detail went into this arch on the Apollo Bunder waterfront, finished in 1924 to mark a royal landing thirteen years earlier. Launches for Elephanta leave from the quay beside it, and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel stands opposite. Evenings draw dense crowds and bag checks at the gates, so mid morning is calmer.
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Haji Ali Dargah
Out on an islet off Worli, the white dargah holds the tomb of a fifteenth century merchant turned saint, reached by a bare causeway laid across the tidal flats. High water covers that walkway, so a crossing has to be timed to the tide table. Fridays bring qawwali singing and the heaviest foot traffic of the week.
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Marine Drive
A curve of reclaimed shorefront runs for more than three kilometres along Back Bay, lined by Art Deco blocks that carry their own UNESCO listing. Sea wall tetrapods take the swell, and the promenade fills from late afternoon with walkers and vendors. Streetlights trace the arc after dark, which is where the name Queen's Necklace comes from.
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Sanjay Gandhi National Park
Forest covers about a hundred square kilometres inside the northern city limits, with leopards resident and Borivali station a short ride away. Cut into a hillside within the boundary, the Kanheri caves form a Buddhist monastic complex of more than a hundred rock cut cells, halls and cisterns. Gates stay shut on Mondays, and early morning is the cooler half of a visit.