See the Beautiful City of Bhuj in Gujarat, India

Kutch area is located on the Northern most part of the State of Gujarat in India. Kutch is having a vast area having a big desert in most of its area. Pakistan border is very near from Kutch. There are many cities in Kutch that have importance of their own. On the map, Kutch appears separate part and looks like not connected with Gujarat State, however, it is a part of Gujarat State only. Bhuj is the biggest and most important city of Kutch. Bhuj has population of around half a million people. Bhuj had a severe earthquake on 26^th January, 2001 having magnitude of 7.5 Richter value. Thousands of people were killed in this earthquake and most of the old city was also completely destroyed. Bhuj was rebuilt with the joint efforts of local people, various social work organizations, and the government. And today's Bhuj is totally different than what it was prior to year 2001.

River Sindhu was flowing through this region before thousands of years. The ancient civilization items were also found during digging, proving that this area was having Sindhu civilization. Bhuj is located at around 240 miles away from Ahmedabad. Bhuj is well connected by train, road, and air. There are regular flights from Mumbai, Delhi, and Jamnagar. The trains are coming up to Gandhidham, which is the nearest railway station. It is around 40 miles away from Bhuj. The regular buses are running from all major cities of Gujarat State for Bhuj. Hotels like Anam, Lakeview, Abba International, Prince, and palace are the most famous. The rates for these hotels are in the range of Rs.1600 ($40) to Rs. 3000($75) per day for a double room. We had stayed at Hotel Prince during our visit to Bhuj last winter. The weather here is extremely hot in summer due to near-by desert and winters are very cold with minimum temperature as around 30 degrees F.

There are many sites seeing places in Bhuj. The first and most important is Hamirsar Lake. This lake is located at the center of Bhuj city. The view of this lake, when full with the rain water, is really fantastic. The lake getting full of water during rainy season, is a matter of celebration for the local people as otherwise, there may be an acute water crisis in the city of Bhuj. The museum of Bhuj is one of the best museums of Gujarat State. It has the large collection of artistic and historical specimens. In addition to these, old palace, Mirror mahal, and the old fort are also the places to be seen. There are some vital excursions that can be visited from Bhuj. Narayan Sarovar is one such vital spot. It is located at around 125 miles away from Bhuj. You can reach Narayan Sarovar by road in hired cars or buses from Bhuj. This lake is considered in one of the five most holy lakes of India. Many Hindu pilgrims visit this place and take bath here in this holy lake. There are many Hindu temples on the bank of this sarovar. Koteshwar is the next place to be visited. It is located 128 miles away from Bhuj. This is a Lord Shiva temple, situated on the sea shore, and is an ancient place of pilgrimage of Hindus.

The India/ Pakistan border is only 5 miles away from this temple and you can visit the border and see the flag hoisting ceremony, held everyday at 12 noon. Purneshwar mahadev temple is situated at around 24 miles from Bhuj. This temple was built in 12^th century and its ancient architecture is very attractive. Anjar is the next town that is to be visited. It is situated at around 20 miles away from Bhuj. It has a safe forest area for Khars. Khar is a local desert animal and it can run at a speed of around 30 miles an hour. You can see many wild animals along with Khars. This abhayranya is covered in the area of around 40 square kilometers. There is a guest house, operated by the forest department here that can provide suitable rooms. However, the facilities are bare minimum here and power failures are also very common. The knives, scissors, and the swords are very famous here at Anjar. The famous Jain temples of Bhadreshwar are located at around 40 miles away from Bhuj. The structure of this temple is really worth seeing. It offers the view of the statue of god, located on ground floor, from all the upper floors. You can also plan to visit the interior of the Kutch desert from Khavda. The camel ride is also given here while traveling in the desert of around couple of hours.

Bhuj has now become a totally new and polished city, having all the modern amenities. It does not look like an under developed city after its rebirth after the 2001 earthquake.