8 lieux à visiter à Srinagar

Dal Lake alone supports an estimated 60,000 people living on its floating villages, growing tomatoes and lotus roots on man-made islands called rads, and ferrying tourists and goods by shikara, the flat-bottomed wooden boat that has functioned as Srinagar's auto-rickshaw since at least the 14th century.

The old city, concentrated on the western banks of the Jhelum River, is a dense network of lanes barely wide enough for a loaded donkey cart. Khatamband-ceilinged mosques, dargahs draped with embroidered cloth, and the carved Kashmiri walnut-wood facades of merchants' havelis press against each other without apology. The craft economy here — papier-mâché, pashmina weaving, crewel embroidery, carpet-knotting — is not artisanal nostalgia; it is a functioning industry that employs tens of thousands across the city and its surrounding villages.

Srinagar's Mughal layer, deposited between the 16th and 18th centuries, is most visible in the char-bagh gardens on the eastern shore of Dal Lake: Shalimar Bagh (commissioned by Emperor Jahangir in 1619), Nishat Bagh (laid out by Asif Khan, Jahangir's brother-in-law, in 1633), and Chashme Shahi (a smaller garden around a natural spring, built by Ali Mardan Khan in 1632). These gardens use flowing mountain water as a design element — stone channels, cascading chutes, and central pools aligned on a single axis — in a manner that no photograph adequately conveys.

Logistically, Srinagar operates differently from other Indian cities. Houseboat accommodation on Dal Lake ranges from spartan to genuinely luxurious, with nightly rates between ₹1,500 and ₹8,000 depending on category and season. Auto-rickshaws in the city are rare; shared Sumo jeeps and private cabs dominate. The Lal Chowk area is the commercial hub; most hotels and guesthouses cluster in Dalgate, Boulevard Road, and the Rajbagh neighbourhood. Security checkpoints remain a reality on major roads, and carrying ID is practical rather than optional.