Jack Altman | 104 pages with fold-out map | ISBN 978-2-88452-600-5

Click on the map to get a detailed view of southern India Turmeric, an essential curry ingredient that stains your fingers © Hamalainen

Southern India brings you the vibrant images of the country’s most ancient beginnings, but also of its brash and bustling modernity. The startling rock-hewn cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora are a day’s journey from mighty Mumbai, itself a high temple of the nation’s dynamic commerce-and exuberant cinema industry. Down the east coast, noble gopuram towers guard the Hindu shrines of Thanjavur and Madurai, mirrored inland by the skyscrapers of India’s hi-tech revolution in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Not forgetting the west coast’s gorgeous Goa, one of Asia’s most coveted beach resorts.