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

The only temple in India where Ram is worshipped as a king. The story goes that Queen Ganesh Kunwari brought the idol from Ayodhya, and it would not move from her palace, so the palace became the temple. Police give the king a gun salute at the aarti. Phool Bagh, the garden next door, has the Sawan Bhadon towers and Palki Mahal.

A huge temple on a high stone platform, built for the Ram idol that never moved in. Inside it is tall and almost empty, like a cathedral, with lotus carvings on the ceiling. Its spires are the tallest thing in Orchha.

The fort sits on an island in the Betwa, reached by an old stone bridge. Raja Mahal, the king's palace, has rooms painted with gods, hunts and court scenes. Jahangir Mahal next door was built by Bir Singh Deo for a visit by the Mughal emperor Jahangir: three floors of domes, balconies and blue tiles round a courtyard, with views from the top over the whole town.

A small two-storey palace in a garden, built for Rai Praveen, a poet and singer at the Orchha court. When the emperor Akbar called her to Delhi, she talked her way back home with a poem. Inside are faded paintings of her and of dancers.

A temple built like a fort on a hill west of town, with no idol inside. People come for the wall paintings: the Ramayana, Krishna's life, and scenes from 1857, including the Rani of Jhansi fighting the British. From the walls you see Orchha's spires and palaces across the fields.

Fourteen tall memorials to the Bundela kings on Kanchan Ghat, by the Betwa. The biggest is Bir Singh Deo's. Vultures nest on the domes, and from the far bank or the bridge the row of spires over the river is the picture of Orchha.

A temple of Baglamukhi Devi in Datia, one of the best known shakti temples in central India. Devotees come in yellow, her colour, and see the goddess through a small window. Dhumavati Devi's shrine opens only at her aarti.

A seven-storey palace on a rock, built about 1620 by Bir Singh Deo, the king who built Jahangir Mahal in Orchha. Nobody ever lived in it. Stairs and dark corridors lead up to painted rooms and a roof that looks over Datia's lake and old town.

The hill fort of Rani Lakshmibai, the queen of Jhansi who fought the British in 1857. Inside the walls are the Kadak Bijli cannon, a Shiva temple, and the spot where, the story says, she jumped her horse over the wall to escape. The views run over the whole city.

The queen's palace in the old city, where Lakshmibai lived. The painted rooms now hold a collection of stone sculptures from the 9th to the 12th century found around Jhansi.

The state museum of Bundelkhand, at the foot of Jhansi Fort. It has galleries on the Rani of Jhansi and 1857, with weapons and portraits, plus sculptures, coins and paintings from the region.