Northern India

Northern India is the most-populous and the most-visited part of the country. It mainly consists of the Gangetic Plains, the Thar Desert, the northern Himalayan region and the northern parts of the Deccan.

Cities

 * &mdash; the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, designed by Le Corbusier
 * — the bustling capital of India and the heart of Northern India
 * — the Pink City, a major exhibit of the Hindu Rajput culture of medieval Northern India
 * — the cultural capital of India, known as the City of Joy, and home to numerous colonial buildings
 * — the largest city and the financial capital of India, the city that never sleeps, home of "Bollywood", the Hindi film industry
 * &mdash; one of the four sacred Hindu dhams, Lord Jagannath temple, famous sea beach
 * — capital of Himachal Pradesh, perched high on the Himalayas, more than 2 km above sea level
 * &mdash; the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Famous for Dal Lake and in a valley surrounded by the picturesque Himalayas
 * — considered the most sacred Hindu city, on the banks of the Ganges, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world

Talk
Hindi is the lingua franca of Northern India and many non-native speakers in the region can understand some level of Hindi. Besides, the region is home to almost all of the Indo-Aryan languages, which are derived from Sanskrit. The Indo-Aryan languages other than Hindi include Bengali, Gujarati, Konkani, Marathi, Odia, Maithili and Sindhi.