Ayodhya in 2 days: what to see, in what order

A fort-like temple to Hanuman on a small hill in the middle of Ayodhya, reached by 76 steps. Many pilgrims come here first, because Hanuman is said to guard the town. Inside is a small image of Hanuman as a child sitting in his mother Anjani's lap. The steps are lined with stalls selling laddoos to offer.

Kanak Bhawan is a palace-temple said to be Kaikeyi's gift to Sita after her wedding. The courtyard is quiet and the images of Ram and Sita wear gold crowns. Dashrath Mahal, the palace of Ram's father, is a few minutes' walk down the same lane and has bhajans in the evening.

The new temple on the spot believed to be Ram's birthplace, opened in January 2024. It is built of pink sandstone from Rajasthan, with no steel, and has three floors of carved pillars. Ram Lalla, Ram as a five-year-old child, stands in the inner shrine. Kuber Tila, with a small Shiva temple and a statue of Jatayu, is inside the same complex.

A memorial to Tulsidas, the poet who wrote the Ramcharitmanas, the Hindi telling of the Ramayana. It has a small museum of Ram stories, paintings and old books, and a stage where the Ramleela is acted every evening. Next door is the Tulsi Chaura, where Tulsidas is said to have started writing.

Ayodhya is holy to Jains too: five of the 24 Tirthankaras are said to have been born here, Rishabhdev, the first, among them. This Digambar temple in Raiganj has a tall standing statue of Rishabhdev, about 9 m high.

The tomb of Bahu Begum, wife of Shuja-ud-Daula, finished in 1816. It is one of the tallest buildings in Faizabad, with a big dome over rows of arches, and is often called the finest Nawabi building outside Lucknow.

The 18th-century tomb of Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh, in Faizabad. Gulab Bari means rose garden: the tomb sits in a walled garden with fountains, water channels and rose beds. Faizabad was the capital of Awadh before the Nawabs moved to Lucknow.

A memorial park on the Saryu for Queen Heo Hwang-ok, a princess from Ayodhya who, Korean legend says, sailed to Korea in 48 AD and married King Suro. Many Koreans count her as an ancestor. The park has a pavilion, a pond and stone pieces in Korean style.

A row of ghats and a long water channel fed by the Saryu, with temples along both sides. In the evening the steps light up, and on Deepotsav, the night before Diwali, lakhs of oil lamps are lit here. Nageshwarnath, the town's old Shiva temple, stands at its head; it is said to have been built by Ram's son Kush.

Every evening priests offer lamps to the Saryu at Naya Ghat, with bells, chanting and crowds on the steps. You can also take a boat on the river before the aarti. Lata Mangeshkar Chowk, with its giant veena, is a few minutes' walk away.