Whenever the river Brahmaputra's name is mentioned it's nearly always prefixed with the appropriately descriptive word 'mighty'. It certainly is and it dominates the city.
This huge expanse of water looks more like a lake than a river. It's currents surge rather than idle along and boats tend to fight their way up river.
In the middle of the river there's the tiny island of Umananda with a temple dedicated to Shiva. Not so inspiring but the short ferry trip was a nice break from the dusty streets. And river life here in India is always fascinating.
Later I visited the much more important hilltop temple Kamakhya .
The Rough Guide to India explains it much better than I can...
The important Kali temple of Kamakhya, with its beehive-shaped shikhara, is a good example of the distinctive Assam else style of architecture. As one of the shaft pithas, it marks the place where Sati’s yoni (vulva) landed when her body fell to earth in 51 pieces. As at many of the shakti temples of Assam, Kamakhya maintains a strong tradition of bali (animal sacrifice usually around noon.
Enough words I'll let some pictures give you a flavour of the Guwahati.
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