Places to visit in Madhya Pradesh
90 places to visit in Madhya Pradesh, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, Chaturbhuj Temple, Khajuraho, Duladeo Temple and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Madhya Pradesh volume.
8 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 10 National monuments · 4 State heritage sites · 26 Famous places to visit · 7 Offbeat places · 35 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Madhya Pradesh (8)
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Bhimbetka Rock Shelters
Paintings on rock going back thirty thousand years, some of the oldest human art anywhere, still in the open air.
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Chaturbhuj Temple, Khajuraho
The southern group's temple with a nine foot Vishnu inside and no erotic carving outside.
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Duladeo Temple
The last of the Khajuraho temples, twelfth century, and the ornament already going stiff.
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Ghantai Temple
A Jain temple at Khajuraho reduced to its pillars, carved with bells on chains.
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Kandariya Mahadeva Temple
The largest and most ornate of the Khajuraho temples, eight hundred and seventy figures on one building.
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Khajuraho Western Group
Kandariya Mahadeva, and the ones on the postcards.
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Lakshmana Temple
The oldest of the Khajuraho western group, finished in 954, with its four corner shrines intact.
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Sanchi Stupa
The oldest stone structure in India, raised by Ashoka over the relics of the Buddha.
National monuments in Madhya Pradesh (10)
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Asirgarh Fort
Called the key to the Deccan, on a hill controlling the pass every invading army from the north had to use.
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Bateshwar Temples
Two hundred small temples of the eighth century, rebuilt stone by stone from rubble over the last twenty years.
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Bhojeshwar Temple
An eleventh century temple left unfinished, its lingam over two metres tall, with the masons' plans still cut into the surrounding rock.
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Chausath Yogini Temple, Mitaoli
A circular temple of sixty four cells on a hill, and the building the Parliament of India is said to echo.
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Datia Palace
Seven storeys, never lived in, all stone and brick.
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Eran
A Gupta site with a stone boar covered in inscriptions, and the earliest record of sati in India.
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Gwalior Fort
On a sandstone plateau three kilometres long, and the place where the symbol for zero was first written down in stone.
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Jama Masjid, Mandu
A great Afghan mosque on a high plinth, modelled on the mosque at Damascus.
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Kakanmath Temple
An eleventh century Shiva temple near Morena standing without mortar, and half fallen.
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Udayagiri Caves
The Varaha panel, and Gupta rock cutting.
State heritage sites in Madhya Pradesh (4)
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Lalbagh Palace
The Holkars' palace at Indore, lived in by the family until 1978.
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Narwar Fort
A fort of eight square kilometres on a scarp of the Vindhyas, five hundred feet above the town.
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Rajwada
Seven storeys of Holkar palace on a busy square.
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Sabalgarh Fort
A hill fort on a rock at Sabalgarh, named with the town after the raja who founded both.
Famous places to visit in Madhya Pradesh (26)
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Amarkantak
Where the Narmada and the Son both begin.
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Bagalamukhi Temple
One of the ten Mahavidya goddesses, on the bank of the Lakhundar at Nalkheda, and hers is the colour yellow.
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Bandhavgarh National Park
The highest density of tigers of any Indian park, around a two thousand year old fort on the central hill.
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Bansagar Dam
A dam on the Sone in Madhya Pradesh, built for irrigation and for the power that comes with it.
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Bargi Dam
One of the first of the thirty dams planned for the Narmada, with twenty one gates.
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Bharhut
The site of a stupa whose carved railings, the earliest Buddhist stories in stone, are now in Kolkata; the mound is what remains.
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Burhanpur
Where Mumtaz Mahal first lay, and the Khooni Bhandara.
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Chanderi
A weaving town of sixteenth century gates and forts, where the cloth is still made on pit looms in the old quarter.
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Chitrakoot
Where Rama spent eleven of fourteen years.
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Gandhi Sagar Dam
A masonry dam of sixty two metres on the Chambal in Mandsaur, one of four the river carries.
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Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya
Two hundred acres on the Shymala hills at Bhopal, given over to how people across India actually live.
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Indirasagar Dam
The largest reservoir in India by the water it holds, on the Narmada at Punasa.
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Jai Vilas Mahal
The Scindia palace with a chandelier so heavy they marched elephants on the roof to test it.
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Kal Bhairav Temple, Ujjain
A temple where the deity is offered liquor, and drinks it.
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Kanha National Park
Sal forest and open meadow that Kipling drew on for the Jungle Book, and the last refuge of the barasingha.
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Khajuraho
Temples carved with everything human life contains, by sculptors unafraid of any of it.
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Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary
Forest along the Kuno river in the Chambal country, made a sanctuary in 1981 and a national park later.
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Mahakaleshwar
One of the twelve jyotirlingas, and the only one facing south, where the dawn rite uses ash from the cremation ground.
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Maheshwar Ghats
Ahilyabai Holkar's capital on the Narmada, its ghats and fort walls dropping straight into the river.
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Mandhata
A river island in the Narmada with the Omkareshwar jyotirlinga on its southern shore.
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Mandu
A fortified city on a plateau, its ship palace built between two lakes so it appears to float in the monsoon.
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Omkareshwar
An island in the Narmada shaped like the syllable Om, holding another of the twelve jyotirlingas.
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Orchha
Palaces and cenotaphs along the Betwa, left almost untouched since the capital moved away in 1783.
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Pachmarhi
The only hill station in Madhya Pradesh, a saucer of sandstone in the Satpura range with waterfalls in every ravine.
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Pench Tiger Reserve
A tiger reserve of more than a thousand square kilometres, straddling Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
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Taj ul Masajid
Begun in the 1870s by Shah Jahan Begum and only finished in 1985, one of the largest mosques in Asia.
Offbeat places in Madhya Pradesh (7)
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Keoti Falls
A fall in Rewa district, counted the twenty fourth highest in India.
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Kheoni Wildlife Sanctuary
A hundred and thirty square kilometres of dry forest in Dewas, joined to Ratapani by corridors.
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Marble Rocks
Eight kilometres of gorge where the Narmada has cut down through soft marble at Bhedaghat.
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Noradehi Wildlife Sanctuary
The largest sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, twelve hundred square kilometres across three districts.
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Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve
The Satpura highlands around Pachmarhi, set aside in 1999.
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Purwa Falls
A fall on the Tamsa near Semariya in Rewa district.
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Ratapani Tiger Reserve
A forest in Raisen district, a sanctuary since 1976 and a tiger reserve only since 2024.
Hidden gems in Madhya Pradesh (35)
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Bandhavgarh Fort
On a cliff two thousand years old inside the tiger reserve, with rock cut Vishnu figures on the way up.
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Bharat Bhavan
Charles Correa's building, and the art inside it.
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Bhedaghat Marble Rocks
A hundred foot marble gorge, best by boat at full moon.
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Bhojpur Temple
An unfinished lingam of extraordinary size.
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Bhojtal
The Upper Lake at Bhopal, made in the eleventh century by Raja Bhoj, and still the city's water.
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Dhamnar Caves
Fifty one caves and a temple cut out of one rock face in the seventh century, with a large reclining Buddha.
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Dhuandhar Falls
The Narmada turning to smoke.
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Dhupgarh
The highest point in the Satpuras, and where Pachmarhi goes to watch the sun set.
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Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary
Dry deciduous forest along the Chambal gorge, with rock shelters painted in the same period as Bhimbetka.
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Jama Masjid, Burhanpur
A Faruqi mosque of 1590 with an inscription in Sanskrit and Arabic, side by side.
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Jatashankar
A cave at Pachmarhi where the rock is said to look like Shiva's matted hair, with a spring through it.
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Kaliadeh Palace
A fifteenth century water palace built over the Shipra so the river runs through its own tanks.
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Ken Gharial Sanctuary
Gharial, and the Ken at Raneh Falls.
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Khajuraho Eastern Group
The Jain temples of the site, quieter than the western group and carved with the same hand.
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Lat Masjid
A mosque at Dhar with an iron pillar lying beside it, older than the mosque and broken.
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Madhav National Park
George Castle, and the lake below it.
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Orchha Cenotaphs
Fourteen chhatris for the Bundela rajas along the Betwa, best seen from the water at first light.
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Pachmarhi Bee Falls
The Satpura hill station's water supply, and its swim.
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Pandav Falls
A fall into a pool with caves behind it, in Panna, said to have sheltered the Pandavas.
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Panna National Park
Tigers brought back from zero.
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Pashupatinath Temple, Mandsaur
An eight faced Shiva linga of the sixth century, found in the Shivna in 1940.
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Patalpani Falls
A fall near Mhow on the Choral, three hundred feet, with a legend about a soldier's ghost.
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Pench National Park
Kipling's jungle, with the paperwork.
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Rajat Prapat
The silver fall at Pachmarhi, a hundred metres down a rock face into a pool.
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Ram Raja Temple
The only place where Rama is worshipped as a king, in a palace that became a temple because an idol would not move.
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Raneh Falls
A canyon of pink and grey granite cut by the Ken, five kilometres long, near Khajuraho.
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Sanchi Stupa Two
Down the hill from the great stupa, with the earliest narrative reliefs in Indian art on its railing.
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Sanjay National Park
Sal forest on the Chhattisgarh border, split when the states were.
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Satdhara
Buddhist stupas on the Bes river near Sanchi, with relics of two of the Buddha's disciples.
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Satpura National Park
One of the few Indian parks where walking safaris are allowed, in ravines too broken for vehicles.
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Shivpuri Chhatris
Scindia cenotaphs in marble, facing each other.
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Tribal Museum
Built by the communities it is about.
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Udayagiri Caves, Vidisha
Gupta rock-cut shrines with a Varaha panel, and an inscription dated 401.
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Upper Lake
Built in the eleventh century by damming the Kolans, and still the source of most of Bhopal's water.
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Van Vihar
A zoo that is a national park, on the Upper Lake.
Collecting in Madhya Pradesh
What are the best places to visit in Madhya Pradesh?
LOQAH lists 90 places in Madhya Pradesh. The best known include Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, Chaturbhuj Temple, Khajuraho, Duladeo Temple, Ghantai Temple and Kandariya Mahadeva Temple. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Madhya Pradesh?
90, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Madhya Pradesh?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Madhya Pradesh before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Madhya Pradesh and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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