Nalanda University Ruins

The red-brick bones of the ancient world's greatest university — monasteries, stupas and lecture halls where 10,000 monks from across Asia once studied logic, medicine and the stars, until the libraries burned in 1193. A UNESCO site radiating quiet grandeur.

Why visit: Walk the campus of a 1,500-year-old university that taught half of Asia.

History: Flourished from the 5th century CE under the Guptas; Xuanzang studied here in the 7th century and described nine-storey libraries whose manuscripts smouldered for months after Bakhtiyar Khilji's raid.