Thursday, November 5, 2020

Mumbai

Mumbai, once known as Bombay, is India's financial center and most important city on it's west coast.

Mumbai is built around a good natural harbor. The peninsula on which the city is built was once seven islands that were joined together, into a peninsula, by land reclamation.

The opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869, opened a much more direct route to India from the west, and made Mumbai (then Bombay) into a very important port.

Such a vast city being located on a peninsula means that there will inevitably be a shortage of land which will raise all costs, making housing especially expensive. We saw in the compound posting, "Economics", November 2019, section 1) POLITICS AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, that New York City is an ideal example of this. 

In my geology theory, described in the compound posting "The Story Of Planet Earth" on the geology blog www.markmeek.blogspot.com , we saw that there is a long undersea ridge on the floor of the Indian Ocean. The ridge runs nearly directly north-south and is caused by magma emerging from below. It is what is described in the theory as a longitudinal line of emergence.

Mumbai is located right where the line of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge meets the coast of India. It is the magma emergence from below that parts the continental land mass of India and produces the good natural harbor around which Mumbai is built.

Let's begin our visit to Mumbai with the magnificent sight of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, with it's new tower in the background, and the Gateway to India.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@18.9226221,72.8344506,2a,75y,147.04h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s-JZOp08XFmtTTSvmBikw3Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D-JZOp08XFmtTTSvmBikw3Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D148.47997%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Nearby are some of the best-known buildings of Mumbai. In the following scenes, we will see the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. This seems to be as far south as the trains go on the peninsula on which Mumbai is built. This is one of the most famous train stations in the world, and is sometimes referred to by English-speakers as Victoria Terminus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhatrapati_Shivaji_Terminus_railway_station#/media/File:CHATRAPATI_SHIVAJI_MAHARAJ_TERMINUS.jpg

Here is another photo of the train station:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhatrapati_Shivaji_Terminus_railway_station#/media/File:Victoria_Terminus_-_CST.JPG

Across the street from the train station is the building of the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai. It is actually called Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. This could be thought of as the city hall of Mumbai:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihanmumbai_Municipal_Corporation#/media/File:Bombay_Municipal_Corporation.JPG

There is a famous market nearby, the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, sometimes referred to be English-speakers as the Crawford Market:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Jyotiba_Phule_Mandai#/media/File:Crawford_Market.png

There is a college near the train station, with an adjoining high school, that is known for it's architecture, St. Xavier's College:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Xavier%27s_College,_Mumbai#/media/File:St._Xavier%27s_College,_Mumbai.jpg

Not far away is the area around Chowpatty Beach. The beach faces the ocean to the west so that one can watch the sun set in the evening.

The following area is in central Mumbai.

https://www.google.com/maps/@19.0639926,72.8654525,2a,75y,277h,84t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRXT0IqaTuXC3hlGg38cjjA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DRXT0IqaTuXC3hlGg38cjjA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D277.5%26pitch%3D-6.941883%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 

This is a business district in central Mumbai.


Here is the Malabar Hill area, to the west of Back Bay.


This is further north in Mumbai, away from the central city area. It seems like ever city in India designates a dual color scheme for taxis, Mumbai's is black and yellow.


Here is more of Mumbai, further from the central part of the city.


This is a look at the far northern area of Mumbai.

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