Uttar Pradesh is a north Indian state that cradles the Himalayas to its north. It is the land of fertile plains irrigated by rivers Ganga and Yamuna, so beloved that these rivers are revered as goddesses and remembered in statues found all over India and Southeast Asia.
Sites in Uttar Pradesh are repeatedly mentioned in Indian epics and Buddhist Jataka tales. These include Kashi, Ayodhya, Mathura, Hastinapur, Kosambhi, Sarnath and others. Along with Taxila and Nalanda, Uttar Pradesh hosted sites of ancient colleges of medicine, math and dance.
Uttar Pradesh is home to over 200 historic sites. These include some of the oldest surviving Hindu temples and Vedic sites, the oldest known Jain archaeological site, some of the oldest Brahmi inscriptions, and temples that have been a source of historic manuscripts.