🇮🇳 Varanasivs🇮🇳 Kashmir

🇮🇳 Varanasi Fun Fact

Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world — over 3,000 years old. Mark Twain wrote: 'Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend.'

🇮🇳 Kashmir Fun Fact

The Dal Lake 'floating gardens' (rad) are man-made islands of vegetation woven together over centuries — vegetable farmers grow tomatoes, cucumbers, and lotus roots in plots that literally float on the lake and can be poled to market by shikara. Kashmir saffron (Crocus sativus Kashmirianus) grown in the Pampore crocus fields is among the world's most prized — it takes 150,000 flowers to produce 1 kg of dried saffron, and the harvest window is just two weeks in October.