Mumbai city (regional capital), metropolitan area - - Pictures
The older part of the city, Mumbai proper, occupies an area of 68 sq km (26 sq mi) south of Mahim Creek. This area is the densest part of Mumbai, with the highest concentration of population and commercial and industrial activities. Greater Mumbai, including Salsette Island, covers an area of 438 sq km (169 sq mi). The focal point of Mumbai was once the Fort area in the south central part of the city, where commercial and administrative activities were concentrated. When Salsette Island was made part of Mumbai, residential, industrial, and administrative areas developed there as well. Industries mostly lie in Parel and its surrounding area, between Mahim Creek in the north and the Fort area in the south. Slums are abundant north of Mahim Creek and around the factories, such as in Parel, Dadra, and Matunga. Nearly 35 percent of Greater Mumbai's population live in slums, some of which remain submerged in knee-deep water during the four-month period of monsoon rains.
Mumbai has a mixture of architectural styles that reflect the long colonial presence in the city as well as the phenomenal recent growth. One of the most famous landmarks in Mumbai is a structure known as the Gateway of India, often the first sight beheld by sea travelers arriving at the city. Colonial monuments in Mumbai include the Presidency Secretariat, which was built in a Venetian Gothic style and developed into the administrative and legislative headquarters of Bombay State after India's independence in 1947; the University Hall, in a 15th-century French style; the University Library and Rajabai Clock Tower, in an early Gothic design; and the High Court, which has a high tower in an early English style. The pillared Town Hall is in a Greek style and occupies the eastern side of a busy traffic area. Horniman Circle, a famous area where three roads converge, includes the old Mint, the old Customs House, and a castle, which lies at the center of the Fort area. The Victoria Terminus, known as VT and renamed Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus in 1996, is adjacent to St. George's and Dadabhai Navroji roads. Beside one of Mumbai's busiest traffic nodes, where seven roads converge, is the terminus of India's Central Railway. The Municipal Building, a combination of Oriental and Gothic architecture, stands in front of the terminus, and has a 78-m (256-ft) high stone dome. In the southeast part of the city, on the east side of Back Bay along Netaji Subhashchandra Bose Road (formerly known as Marine Drive), lie the low-rise skyscrapers of the 1940s, while in the southwest of the peninsula are the Malabar and Cumbala hills. The hills were once home to Europeans when living quarters in the Fort area became congested; now well-to-do Indians reside here. The Parsi Towers of Silence, a sacred place where the Parsi people lay out their dead, Hindu Babulnath Temple, the Hanging Gardens, and Kamala Nehru Park, which features a scenic view of Mumbai, are all located on Malabar Hill. To the west are the Elephanta cave temples dating from the 8th century on a small island off the Mumbai Harbor.
