Located in the West region, Maharashtra [1] is the third largest state of India by size and the second largest by population. It stretches from the west coast to the interior regions and its climate too varies with its geography. Maharashtra contains India's most industrialized region, the Bombay-Pune belt. Agriculturally too, the state is one of India's more advanced and well-irrigated. The northern and eastern parts of the state, however lag behind the western region.

Regions

For administrative purposes, the state is sub-divided into six divisions and further into 35 districts. Officially, all divisions save one are named after the district where the headquarters of the division is located. But the divisions are also popularly known by other names and that is how they are listed here. The official names of the divisions are given alongside in brackets.

• Marathwada ( Aurangabad)
• Amravati
• Konkan
• Vidarbha ( Nagpur)
• North Maharashtra ( Nashik)
• Western Maharashtra ( Pune)

Cities

• Bombay (Mumbai) The capital. Also the commercial capital of India. Developed under the British rule, this city has a handful of magnificent colonial era buildings, wonderful connectivity to the beach resorts of Konkan, and Elephanta Caves.
• Matheran A hill-station town close to Bombay
• Pune The cultural capital of Maharashtra.
• Nagpur The city of Oranges, located at the geographical center of india
• Kolhapur The home of Goddess Ambabai
• Nashik The city of pilgrimage - The Grape city
• Ajanta - Buddhist caves - a complex of caves representing some of the best of early Buddhist art.
• Ellora - Buddhist caves
• Lonar This place has Earth's only meteor crater in basaltic rock.

Other destinations

Hill Forts

Maharashtra is well known for its hill forts which helped Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to combat many a strong opponent by means of guerrilla warfare. Some of the important forts are

• Raigad
• Rajgad
• Pratapgad
• Panhala
• Purandargad
• Kondhana/Sinhagad
• Shivneri
• Jeevdhan
• Pandavgad
• Chavand
• Hadsar
• Dhangad
• Rohida
• Kenjalgad
• Vairatgad
• Harishchandragad

Understand

• Maharashtra tourism [2]

Talk

The principal language spoken is Marathi. Hindi is widely spoken and understood. The capital city of Bombay is fairly cosmoplitan, with many languages, including English being spoken. Konkani is a minority langugage closely related to Marathi, spoken by a community called Konkanis. Though Konkanis are common in the Konkan region, they are by no means a majority even there.

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• Beach resorts

Coastal Maharashtra (Konkan) has some of very beautiful beaches. With a 720 km coast line, there are beautiful beach destinations almost every 50-100 kms, starting from Dahanu in the Northern part of the State to Sindhudurg, at the Southern tip.

Some popular beaches are:

• Dahanu-Bordi
• Gorai-Madh
• Juhu
• Alibag
• Kashid
• Murud-Janjira
• Harihareshwar
• Ganpatipule
• Tarkarli
• Vengurla
• Terekhol

While the beaches in Bordi, Gorai, Juhu, Alibag, Kashid and Murud-Janjira are well-developed, with multiple accommodation choices, the rest remain still off the tourist circuit. The primary reason is lack of good accommodation choices. At most of the other beaches, the only decent stay options are properties owne and managed by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), a govt. organisation. These MTDC resorts have amazing location with great views, but being govt. run, these are not among the best in service, activities and food.

• Hill Stations

Popular hill stations in Maharashtra are -

• Matheran
• Mahabaleshwar

• National Parks
• Meteor Crater
• Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai

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