Golden Temple
The Harmandir Sahib, rebuilt after repeated destruction and gilded under Ranjit Singh; its langar feeds tens of thousands daily.
Open all night. Visit at dawn and again after dark; cover your head and remove shoes.
3 hrs
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Amritsar
Guru Ram Das dug the holy pool and the city grew around it; Amritsar holds Sikhism's golden shrine, the garden where the Raj lost its legitimacy, and some of India's best eating.
Sarovar
1577
The tank
Guru Ram Das founds the city.
1801
Ranjit Singh
The Sikh empire gilds the shrine.
1919
Jallianwala Bagh
A massacre turns the freedom movement.
1947
Partition
The border falls thirty kilometers away.
Jallianwala Bagh
The walled garden where General Dyer fired on an unarmed crowd on 13 April 1919; the bullet marks are kept in the brick.
Free entry. Look for the Martyrs' Well and the narrow entrance lane the troops blocked.
45 min
Akal Takht
The seat of Sikh temporal authority, founded by Guru Hargobind in 1606 facing the Harmandir across the causeway.
Visit during the palki ceremony at dawn or night.
20 min
Durgiana Temple
A Hindu temple rebuilt in 1921 in the style of the Golden Temple, set in its own tank.
Quieter than the Golden Temple; go in the morning.
45 min
Gurdwara Baba Atal Rai
A nine-story octagonal tower of the 1780s near the Golden Temple, the tallest building in the old city, with murals of Guru Nanak's life.
Two minutes' walk from the temple's southern side.
30 min
Khalsa College
An 1892 college built in a grand Indo-Saracenic style, the pride of the Sikh reform movement.
A working campus; see the facade from the gate.
30 min
Pul Kanjari
A bridge, baradari and bathing tank built by Ranjit Singh near the border, with faded frescoes inside.
Stop on the way to the Wagah ceremony.
30 min
Tarn Taran Sahib
A gurdwara founded by Guru Arjan in 1590, with one of the largest sarovars in Sikhism.
Visit in the morning; it is about 45 minutes by road.
Half day