Atlas Trail
Ten South Indian and Deccan Cities from Thiruvananthapuram to Nizamabad
This trail runs roughly south to north through ten Indian cities, from the Kerala capital at the southern tip to a Telangana district seat on the Deccan. They are not the best known cities of the region. Each earns its place through a different reason for existing, such as a seaport, a river crossing, a temple, a shrimp fishery or a state boundary redrawn in 2014.
Stop 1 of 10.
Cities
Thiruvananthapuram is the capital of Kerala and a good place to start. The 2011 count of 957,730 within the municipal corporation makes it the most populous city in the state, and the page notes that an international airport and an international seaport both sit close to its center.
Stop 2 of 10.
Cities
Thoothukudi sits on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal and is a port and industrial city. Its V.O. Chidambaranar Port Authority is one of the major ports in India, and the page records the city as headquarters of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank.
Stop 3 of 10.
Cities
Thrissur is built around a 65 acre hillock topped by the Vadakkumnathan temple. It was once the capital of the Kingdom of Cochin, was made a major commercial center under Maharaja Sakthan Thampuran between 1769 and 1805, and hosts the Thrissur Pooram, one of the state's largest temple festivals.
Stop 4 of 10.
Cities
Tiruchirappalli, also called Trichy, lies near the geographic center of Tamil Nadu and had 916,857 residents in 2011. The page ties it to the Sangam period, to the Carnatic Wars of 1746 to 1763 and to the Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam.
Stop 5 of 10.
Cities
Thanjavur, once called Tanjore, rose to prominence as capital of the Chola empire. Most of the Great Living Chola Temples, a UNESCO World Heritage listing, stand in and around the city, led by the Brihadisvara Temple that Rajaraja I built in the city centre.
Stop 6 of 10.
Cities
Nellore stands on the Penna River in Andhra Pradesh, with 600,869 residents at the 2011 census. Its district was renamed in 2008 for Potti Sriramulu, who fasted to death campaigning for a linguistic Andhra state, and the city is nicknamed the Shrimp Capital of India for its aquaculture.
Stop 7 of 10.
Cities
Hospet, also called Hosapete, sits on the Tungabhadra River 13 kilometers from Hampi, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. The page calls it the steel city of Karnataka and records its founding in 1520.
Stop 8 of 10.
Cities
Hubli, officially Hubballi, forms the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad with its neighbor, the second largest urban agglomeration in Karnataka. The 2011 count for Hubli alone is 943,788, and the district headquarters sits in Dharwad rather than here.
Stop 9 of 10.
Cities
Kakinada is a Bay of Bengal port that grew in the mid-19th century after the decline of nearby Coringa. It gained administrative importance in 1859 and benefited from cotton exports during the American Civil War, and it was among the first 20 cities chosen for India's Smart Cities Mission.
Stop 10 of 10.
Cities
Nizamabad ends the trail on the Deccan, about 186 kilometers north of Hyderabad. It passed from Hyderabad State to Andhra Pradesh and then to the new state of Telangana under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014, and serves as headquarters of its own district.
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