A Good Reason to Climb Down a Mountainside, Indian Himalayas – Cityscape Photography

This scene of the Indian town of McLeod Ganj might be appropriate for both the Cityscape Photography and Landscape Photography contests.

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Like many mountain towns, particularly those in the Himalayas, McLeod Ganj was built not ON a mountain, but ON THE SIDE of a mountain. Consequently, many of the buildings seem to be perched precariously on rather unstable foundations. But they’ve been standing there for many years, so we can assume they’re stable enough.

Let’s not move the mountain 

In the case of some buildings (such as the old red and white hotel in this photo), the front of the building may be 5 storeys high, while the rear of the building may be only 2 or 3 storeys high. But those 2–3 storeys are the upper storeys. Apparently the builders decided that it was easier to build on the side of the mountain than to move a part of the mountain. I believe most of us would agree!

That makes for some interesting architecture, and a unique cityscape. In this scene, the road in front of the hotel dips several meters below the hotel entrance, while the winding path directly behind the hotel (seen in upper-right of photo) ascends well above the 5th floor of the hotel.   

Climb on down for a few drinks 

One evening, a fellow traveller invited us to his guesthouse for a few cocktails. He led us to the edge of a road – which was also the edge of a cliff – and said “Here we are.” 

In order to get to his room, we had to climb down a few flights of very steep and somewhat rickety stairs affixed to the side of the cliff. Considering that we had to climb back up later, we limited ourselves to only “a few cocktails.”

This is my entry in @juliank’s Cityscape Photography contest. (And maybe the Landscape Photo contest, too.☺)