As Wikipedia notes, Almora is a municipal town and cantonment in Uttarakhand’s Kumaun region. It did not emerge from the pressures of recent urbanisation. Rather, it is a 600-year-old town situated on the Kashyap Hills. It sits on a 5-km-long mountain ridge that forms a distinct horseshoe shape.
Indeed, Almora is older than Kolkata, Chennai or Mumbai.
During the late 16th century, the Chanda rulers of Kali Kumaon (today’s Champawat) shifted their capital to Almora, which, in certain accounts, was referred to as Alamnagar. This is how the town is believed to have been founded. It later passed into the hands of the Gorkhas for a brief period and became part of British India in 1816, following the formalisation of the Treaty of Sugauli between the British and the Gorkhas.
Beyond this ruler-oriented history, Almora has a rich past of its own. Hailed as the cultural capital of Kumaun, it encompasses linguistic, literary, and spiritual history that give it the life of a thriving town.
Today, people often mistake Almora for another hill station with a Mall Road, bustling bazaars, cosy eateries, cosy cafés, colonial buildings and historical relics. Well, it has a bit of everything mentioned. Almora probably does not offer the instant tourist gratification of Nainital,...