Places to visit in Srinagar and Kashmir, and the order to see them

A small stone Shiva temple on a hilltop about 300 m above the city. From the top you see Dal Lake, the houseboats, the old city and the mountains all round. The road ends at a parking area, and about 240 steps lead up to the temple.

The smallest of Srinagar's Mughal gardens, built in 1632 round a natural spring. Three terraces step down the hill with a channel of spring water running through them. People still fill bottles from the spring.

A ruined seven-terrace garden built in the 1650s by Dara Shikoh, a Mughal prince, as a school of astronomy. It sits high on the Zabarwan hills, with one of the best views over Dal Lake. The arches are lit up at night.

The biggest Mughal garden in Kashmir, laid out in 1633 by Asif Khan, brother of Nur Jahan. Twelve terraces climb from the edge of Dal Lake to the hills, with a long water channel, fountains and old chinar trees.

The Mughal emperor Jahangir built this garden in 1619 for his wife Nur Jahan. A water channel runs through four terraces past black stone pavilions and fountains, under huge chinar trees that turn red in autumn.

A white marble mosque with a dome on the north shore of Dal Lake. It holds a relic believed to be a hair of the Prophet Muhammad, and is the most important shrine in Kashmir. The lawns by the water look across the lake to the hills.

A ride in a shikara, the painted wooden boat with a canopy, from one of the numbered ghats on Boulevard Road. In an hour you pass houseboats, floating gardens and the boat sellers of the lake. Longer rides reach the floating vegetable market and Char Chinar island.

Asia's largest tulip garden, with over a million tulips in rows of colour below the Zabarwan hills. It opens for only a few weeks each spring, so it is not in the day plans.

A large garden with lawns, a lake with boats, rose beds and old trees, beside the Tulip Garden. It is less formal than the Mughal gardens and good for a slow walk.

The great mosque of the old city, first built in 1394. Its courtyard is ringed by cloisters held up by 378 wooden pillars, each made from a single deodar tree. It is quite different from the domed mosques of the plains.

A wooden shrine on the bank of the Jhelum, built in the 14th century to honour the Sufi saint Shah-e-Hamdan. Its walls and ceilings are covered in carved and painted papier-mache, the finest example of old Kashmiri woodwork in the city.

An 18th-century Afghan fort on the hill above the old city, with walls built earlier by Akbar. The hill also has a Hindu temple, the shrine of Makhdoom Sahib and a gurdwara. From the fort you look over the whole city and Dal Lake.

The Sri Pratap Singh Museum, Kashmir's state museum, in a new building beside the Jhelum. It has carved stone sculpture from Kashmir's old temples, shawls, papier-mache, carpets and old arms.

A marble temple to the goddess Ragnya Devi, standing in a spring-fed pool at Tulmulla, under huge chinar trees. Devotees offer kheer, sweet rice pudding, to the spring, which gives the temple its name. It is the most important temple for Kashmiri Pandits.

Sonamarg, the meadow of gold, is a valley at about 2,700 m on the road to Ladakh, with the Sindh river and glaciers above it. The main outing is Thajiwas Glacier, about 3 km up a side valley on foot or by pony.

A waterfall in a pine valley a few kilometres off the road at Tangmarg, below Gulmarg. In winter it freezes into a wall of ice that draws as many visitors as the snow above.

One of the highest cable cars in the world. Phase 1 goes from Gulmarg up to Kongdori at about 3,000 m; Phase 2 continues to Apharwat at about 3,950 m, with snow on the top for much of the year and views to Nanga Parbat on a clear day.

Gulmarg's wide meadow, with the golf course, St Mary's Church and, on a small knoll in the middle, the Maharani Temple, a Shiva temple built in 1915 by the queen of Kashmir's Dogra ruler. It is the red-roofed temple seen in the song from the film Aap Ki Kasam.

The plateau round Pampore grows most of India's saffron. For a few weeks in autumn the fields turn purple with crocus flowers, picked by hand at dawn. The rest of the year the stop is the saffron shops and kahwa stalls on the highway.

The ruins of a stone Vishnu temple built in the 9th century by King Avantivarman, right by the highway. The carved pillars and gateway, with river goddesses and Vishnu, still stand inside a walled courtyard.

The great ruined sun temple of Kashmir, built in the 8th century by King Lalitaditya on a plateau above Mattan. Its grey stone walls and colonnade, with the snow peaks behind, are some of the most striking ruins in India.

Pahalgam is a valley town on the Lidder river at about 2,200 m, ringed by pine forest. Betaab Valley, 15 km up, is a green meadow with the river running through it, named after the 1983 film shot there. Aru Valley, 12 km the other way, is a quiet village meadow.