Mahabaleshwar :India
Mahabaleshwar is the largest and most popular hill station in western Tndia. At 1,372 metres (4,501 feet) above sea level, it also has the most spectacular views.

The name is a combination of three Sanskrit words: maha, bala and ishwar, meaning ‘God of Great Power’. For centuries it has been considered a holy place. The hill is the source of many rivers including the Krishna, one of the main rivers of the Deccan. From at least as early as the 13th century, local rulers contributed to the building of temples in Old Mahabaleshwar, around the source of the Krishna. Shivaji and his mother visited them in 1653 to seek advice from a learned Brahmin. The hill was also one of the first territories he acquired and nearby on the Par Ghat, which the British called Corkscrew Pass, he built the Pratapgad Fort. After the British defeated the last Peshwa in 1818 they restored the hill and the fort to the 24-ycar-old Raja Pratapsingh of Satara, a descendant of Shivaji.

The first Briton to set foot in Mahabaleshwar was Sir Charles Malet in 1791. However, General Peter Lodwick, who arrived in 1824, was the first to try to popularise the hill as a sanatorium. The raja of Satara, encouraged by a series of British residents, began to develop the site and invited the governor of Bombay, Sir John Malcolm, there. Malcolm visited the hill in 1828 and in the same year it wyas officially announced that a sanatorium would be built. The next year a treaty transferred the hill to British territory. The raja insisted that the new station be named after the governor and for some years it was known as Malcolm Peth, a name now restricted to the bazaar.