Himachal Pradesh

Himachal:
Nestled in the Himalayas, the world's mightiest mountain ranges, Himachal Pradesh is blessed with spectacular landscapes, matchless traditions & natural beauty spread everywhere. Truly a travellers paradise with all seasons holiday options, Himachal promises a fantastic time and thrill in this hilly state. Due to its traditions and simplicity of people who have tremendous faith in spiritual pursuits, this land is popularly  known as DEV BHOOMI (land of holy spirits). It is a place where one can find village life deep rooted in realms of deity worship and festivity related to seasons and traditional pursuits. 

The capital of the state is Shimla and other major towns include Solan, Dharamshala, Kangra, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba, Hamirpur, Dalhousie and Manali. It takes in the frontier zone from the plain to the high Himalaya and in the trans Himalayan region of lahaul and spiti actually crosses that mighty barrier to the Tibetan Plateau

History:
The history of the Himachal is interesting as well as mysterious. According to the Rig-Veda (Sacred Hindu Texts) many human tribes occupied the hills of Himachal and other areas before the arrival of the Aryans. The non-Arayan tribes of the Koles, the Kiratas , the Kinnaras, the Yakshas and the Nagas, lived here prior to the Arayans.  Himachal has a history of several princely hill states with areas divided among themselves for cultural  and economic reasons. The famous ones have been the princely states of Kangra, Chamba, Bilaspur Kullu & Shimla regions. Many old forts and monuments in Himachal are live example of former Hill states. Other than British invasion armed Gorkhas from neighboring Nepal also try to take control over some regions of Sirmour but later they got evacuated.

Climate:
Himachal Pradesh is mostly hilly but some parts are plains and resemble climatic conditions similar to Punjab and Chandigarh regions. Himachal mostly dominated by mountains, rivers, passes and lakes has  diversification in the climatic conditions due to variation in elevation. October to February nights and mornings are very chilled in regions of Kullu, Manali, Dharamshala, Shimla, Palampur region. The regions of Lahaul and Spiti & some parts of Kinnaur are completely isolated where  there are mountain passes that are blocked by snow.The climatic conditions, therefore, vary from the semi- tropical to semi-artic.

Geographical