Mount Abu is a prominent hill station in Rajasthan enjoying a common border with Gujarat.The place enjoys an equable climate with pleasant summer, subtle monsoon and a subdued winter, the temperature touching freezing point due to snow fall in the Himalayas.
Mount Abu is famous for its ancient Jain temples dating back to the 11th century,the Sunset View and the famous Nakki Lake, said to be excavated by sages with their nails.
Acclaimed as the SAINT'S PINNACLE in ancient times, here dwelt the hermits and sages.So the place rates a mention in religious works of India such as the Mahabharat and Vishnu Puran. Early history, however, attributes the rediscovery of the Holy place to Lt Colonel James Tod, historian and traveler and the first Englishman to visit Aboo, as he called it, in 1822. Tod in his TRAVELS THROUGH WESTERN INDIA, expresses "....the discovery was my own" and then extols ecstatically his first glimpse of Aboo "....it was nearly noon, when I cleared the pass of Sitla Mata and as the bluff head of Aboo opened on me, my heart beat with joy and with a surge of spirits, I exclaimed EUREKA!"
Once exquisite for natural flora and fauna and now, with the faculties dwindled alarmingly, the holy place is headed for a debacle, plagued with encroachments resulting in unhealthy environment. But regardless of the current drawbacks, the hill station is a popular destination of tourists touching an inflow of around 18 lakhs a year.
Abu has had a good Xmas 2009. The Winter Cultural Festival had been organised. The activity was an engrossing success with an increased flow of visitors who, as a change enjoyed ice cream in the biting cold while warming around a bonfire. However, the New Year 2010 opened with a severe bout of cold triggered by heavy snowfall in the Northern region with the the temperature dropping to below freezing point.Frost is prominent on the roof tops, lawns,trees,plants and parked vehicles while a thin film of ice can be seen early in the morning on the edge of the Nakki Lake. The cold is invigorating and enjoyable with good food and drink. The extreme climate has in no way marred the tourist inflow.
