Kanpur

About Kanpur

Kanpur stretches along the south bank of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh and is one of North India's great industrial cities, once nicknamed the Manchester of the East for its textile mills and still known for leather goods. The British called it Cawnpore, and its cantonment, wide roads and Gothic church still recall that era.

The city's most painful chapter came in 1857, when the siege of the British entrenchment, the killings at Satichaura Ghat and the Bibighar episode made it one of the central places of the uprising. Memorials to all sides of that story are scattered across the city, from the Memorial Church to Nana Rao Park, named after Nana Sahib, who led the rebels here.

Today Kanpur is a busy commercial hub with modern temples, a large forest zoo and riverside spots that fill up in the evening. Just upstream, the small town of Bithoor adds ghats, Ramayana legends and more 1857 history, making an easy half-day trip. Lucknow is about an hour and a half away by road.