India
Bhedaghat
Rowboats drift silently down a green river walled by hundred-foot cliffs of pure white marble.
The marble cliffs rise a hundred feet on both sides. The Narmada narrows between them, dark and quiet, and the rowboat drifts without a motor. In moonlight the white walls shimmer like silver, lit as if from within.
Bhedaghat, in Madhya Pradesh, is where the Narmada River passes through the Marble Rocks — a gorge of pale marble rising vertically some thirty metres on either side. Rowboats work the passage while boatmen point out formations said to resemble elephants, crocodiles and temples, and at the gorge's head the river hurls itself over Dhuandhar Falls into a permanent smoky mist. On the hill above, the circular 10th-century Chaunsath Yogini Temple watches the whole bend of the river.
Solo
Take the first boat of the morning when the river is glass, then walk up to the Yogini circle.
Couple
Book the moonlit boat — the marble glows silver, and the gorge does the rest.
Family
Boat, waterfall, temple — three set pieces an afternoon can hold, each one a gasp.
- Moonlit boat rides are the town's own recommendation — the marble shimmers like silver after dark.
- The boatmen's commentary is a folk art in itself, reading animals and temples into the rock.
- Dhuandhar — 'smoke cascade' — earns the name: the fall generates its own permanent mist.
- The Chaunsath Yogini circle above the river holds sixty-four goddess shrines in a 10th-century ring.
Hotel Marble Rock's Dhuandhar restaurant does the dependable Indian table with the rocks in view.
Rabdi jalebi from the ghat stalls — clotted cream poured over syrup-soaked spirals.
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