Kanyakumari

Land's end — where the Indian peninsula comes to a point

Kanyakumari sits at the very southern tip of mainland India, where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean are said to converge. Two granite islets stand just offshore: the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, marking the spot where Swami Vivekananda meditated in 1892, and the 133-foot Thiruvalluvar Statue, depicting the Tamil poet-philosopher. Both are reached by a short ferry crossing and visible together from the mainland shore.

The town itself is a place of pilgrimage and quiet ritual — the Kumari Amman Temple on the shoreline, fishing boats drawn up on the sand, and a shifting light over open water that draws visitors at both dawn and dusk.