A steel bust of Shiva 34 metres high and weighing around 500 tonnes, unveiled in 2017 at the Isha Yoga Center below the Velliangiri hills, and recognised by Guinness as the largest bust in the world. It was built to mark the figure of Adiyogi, the first yogi, as the source of yoga.

A meditation shrine consecrated in 1999 at the foot of the Velliangiri hills, built as an elliptical brick dome 76 feet across and raised without steel, cement or reinforcement. The linga inside is 13 feet 9 inches high; the space is open to all and holds no rituals or prayers.

A Murugan temple on a hill of the Western Ghats about twelve kilometres from Coimbatore, its origins traced to the Pandya period and the present structure largely built from the twelfth century onward. The hill is known for medicinal herbs, and the name is read as the hill of medicine.

Laid out in 1848 on the lower slopes of Doddabetta, this garden covers about 22 hectares in terraced sections and holds a fossilised tree trunk said to be twenty million years old. The Italian-style layout, the fern house and the old conifers date from the British period. The annual flower show each May fills it with visitors.

An artificial lake created in 1824 by John Sullivan, the Collector who founded the hill station, by damming the streams of the Ooty valley. It was once used for boat races and duck shoots; today it is a rowing and pedal-boat lake with a toy-train ride along one bank. The eucalyptus-lined shore is the centre of the town's tourist life.

At 2,637 metres this is the highest point in the Nilgiris and in Tamil Nadu, where the Eastern and Western Ghats meet. A telescope house at the summit lets visitors look out over the Coimbatore plains and the Mysore plateau on a clear day. The name means big mountain.

The terminus of the metre-gauge line up from Mettupalayam, opened in stages from 1899 and worked on the Abt rack system for the steep sections - the only rack railway in India. UNESCO added it to the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage listing in 2005. The steam-hauled climb from the plains takes about five hours.

A botanical garden laid out in 1874 in a natural ravine and named after J. D. Sim, then secretary of the Madras Club. Unlike a formal garden it keeps the shola slope, with more than a thousand plant species including rare conifers and an avenue of Japanese cherry. The annual fruit and vegetable show is held here in May.

A rock jutting out over the Hulikal ravine whose shape gives the point its name, about ten kilometres from Coonoor. From the railing the Catherine Falls can be picked out across the gorge on a clear day. The road out passes through tea estates and Lamb's Rock.

A working tea factory above Coonoor that takes visitors through the whole process from plucked leaf to graded tea, ending with a tasting and a shop. The estate slopes around it are typical Nilgiri tea country. Coonoor has been a centre of Indian tea since the 19th century.

The Kallar river drops in two tiers, around 250 metres in all, making this one of the highest waterfalls in Tamil Nadu. It is named after the wife of M. D. Cockburn, the Englishman who introduced coffee to the Kotagiri area. The viewpoint above gives the standard picture; a rough track leads down towards the base.

The Pykara river drops through a series of cascades in shola forest about twenty kilometres from Ooty, reached by a short walk from the road. The Toda people hold the river sacred. The falls run hardest from July to September.

A reservoir on the Pykara river with a boat house, set among grassland and shola on the road towards Mudumalai. Pedal and motor boats run on it, and the surrounding downs are a favourite film location. The dam here was among the earliest hydroelectric works in the Nilgiris.

The elephant camp at the heart of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, on the bank of the Moyar, where the forest department has kept and trained elephants since 1917. Visitors watch the morning and evening feeding, and the reserve's safari counter is here. The camp and its mahouts were the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary The Elephant Whisperers.