Things to do in Bhubaneswar

What can be the best part of a city? What can actually make a city unique? Its tourist attractions? Or its cuisine? How about a city that boasts with 700 temples? That is Bhubaneswar in a nutshell – rightfully named the City of Temples. With Puri and Konark, Bhubaneswar forms the Golden Triangle and one of the most favorite tourist destinations of eastern India.
The capital city of Odisha and one of the top favorite of the tourists, Bhubaneswar is dominated by temples dedicated to Lord Shiva. Most of these temples depict an architectural design that is derived from a sub-style of the Nagara style of north Indian temples. Along with the religious significance, Bhubaneswar has equal contribution towards significant cultural landscape components and diverse ranges of heritage resources.
Bhubaneswar is also considered as one of the first planned cities of modern India. Urbanization has crawled in the city’s development making it emerge as a prominent IT and education hub, as well as the country’s fastest developing cities. Well connected to the world via an international airport, the East Coast Railway (Bhubaneswar is the headquarters) and National Highway 16, Bhubaneswar can be reached easily for tourism and commercial purposes.

Food and cuisines are major tourist attractions of Bhubaneswar – especially the sweets and the seafood dishes that include various preparations of lobsters and crabs. It is believed that Odiya cooks are among the best in the world, and so is their varied traditional cuisine like Dahi-Pakhala and Badi Chura to name a few. Bhubaneswar is also famous for woven ikat fabrics which are available as readymade garments, sarees and fabrics. Appliqué work done locally is also quite popularly sold.

The name Bhubaneswar is derived from Tribhubaneswar (Shiva) which means "Lord of Three Worlds". Legends say that the city was once among the favorite places of Lord Shiva where he meditated under a huge mango tree. Many of the temples in Bhubaneswar were constructed during 8th-12th centuries AD, which was a period when Saivism or Lord Shiva’s preaching dominated the religious scenario. The history of the city dates back to earlier than 7th to 13th centuries.