Mumbai (Bombay)

Neighborhoods

Mumbai city has many distinctive neighborhoods. The southern tip of Mumbai Island, Colaba, is known for the Gateway of India, a yellow basalt arch built in 1924 to commemorate the British presence in India. Just to the north lies the Fort Area, the site of the old British fort around which Mumbai was built. Its Victorian gothic buildings, such as Victoria Terminus and the High Court, are monuments to the city's colonial past. Marine Drive, lined with high-rise apartments, runs along the shoreline of Back Bay from Nariman Point to Chowpatty Beach. Malabar Hill, an exclusive residential area, lies to the northwest of Back Bay. This neighborhood is known for the Hanging Gardens, as well as the Towers of Silence, where the Parsis lay out their dead to be

consumed by vultures and crows. The crowded, bustling Kalbadevi and Bhuleshwar bazaar areas north of Crawford Market were known as "Native Town" to Mumbai's early European inhabitants. Other well-known city landmarks are the Taj Mahal Hotel, Oval Maidan, Cuffe Parade, Horniman Circle, and Flora Fountain.

Bandra and Juhu Beach are prosperous residential areas just north of the Mahim Causeway. Further north are many large suburbs, including Andheri, Kandivili, and Borivali. New Mumbai and Nhava Sheva, on the mainland to the east of Mumbai Harbor and Thana Creek, form part of the Greater Mumbai area.