Prinsep Ghat

The southernmost and most elegant of the major ghats: a Palladian memorial to James Prinsep, decipherer of the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts, commissioned in 1841, designed by Captain W. Fitzgerald and completed in 1843 with four Ionic columns beneath a pediment of Greek and Gothic inlay. Set in a formal garden facing the widening Hooghly, it’s the most purely beautiful spot on the riverfront, though now a genuinely popular evening destination for Kolkata residents, food vendors and Rabindra Sangeet from speakers, not a solitary one. For a quieter version of the same golden light, try Armenian Ghat’s upper pavilion instead. Prinsep Ghat sits against the walls of Fort William, an active army cantonment: photograph the memorial and river freely, but not the fort’s gates or personnel.