The Taj Mahal in Agra and the ghats of Varanasi cast long shadows, hiding a wonderful city right in between. Relatively few Westerners visit Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, and I admit I’d never explored it myself. But the city of about 4 million people turned out to be one of my favorite stops on my recent itinerary. Lucknow has a rich history, extravagant architecture and still-thriving handicraft traditions, notably chikan, the local style of embroidery. Yet when we told Indians that we were going, they became most excited about the food.

Our guide in Lucknow took us to the ruins of the British Residency, pocked with holes from cannonballs and bullets fired during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (the Sepoy Mutiny). We went inside an abandoned Awadhi palace turned drug research lab (now abandoned), and we ascended to the roof of the Bara Imambara to survey the Muslim monument’s colonnades, minarets and innumerable domes. In the crumbling old center, the lack of tourists meant that prices for intricately embroidered garments were startlingly low.

Taj Mahal Lucknow

Editor Photos (slideshow below)