Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple, Melukote

A 13th-century Hoysala temple (about 1235) to Mallikarjuna (Shiva) at Basaralu near Mandya, on a star-shaped plan with three towers and finely carved panels — Ravana shaking Kailasa, dancing figures and epic scenes.

Karnataka's largest bird sanctuary — a cluster of Kaveri river islets near Srirangapatna where thousands of storks, herons, egrets, ibises and cormorants nest; boat rides pass the nesting colonies and basking marsh crocodiles.

The great island temple to Ranganatha (the reclining Vishnu) — the first (Adi Ranga) of the three Sri Ranganatha temples down the Kaveri and a Divya Desam, a large Hoysala–Vijayanagara complex with a tall gopuram at the heart of the fortified island town.

The Masjid-e-Ala (Jama Masjid) built by Tipu Sultan in 1784 within the fort, a two-storey mosque with tall twin minarets that give views over the island town.

The famous terraced ornamental gardens laid out below the Krishnarajasagara (KRS) dam on the Kaveri, with symmetrical parterres, water channels and fountains and an evening musical-fountain show.

Tipu Sultan's ornate teak summer palace of 1784, set in a formal garden at Srirangapatna, its walls covered in murals — including the Battle of Pollilur — and floral frescoes; now an ASI museum.

A hilltop temple to Srinivasa (Vishnu) on Karighatta ("black hill") near Srirangapatna, reached by a short drive up, with a wide view over the Kaveri–Lokapavani confluence and the island town below.

A riverside temple to the goddess Nimishamba (a form of Parvati) at Ganjam near Srirangapatna, on the bank of the Kaveri — believed to answer prayers within a "nimisha" (a minute), and always busy with pilgrims.

The domed mausoleum built by Tipu Sultan holding the tombs of his father Hyder Ali, his mother, and Tipu himself, set in a garden and known for its ivory-inlaid doors and tiger-stripe painted walls.

A hill pilgrimage centre in Nagamangala taluk built around the ancient Kalabhairaveshwara Swamy math of the Adichunchanagiri order, with a Gangadhareshwara temple and a peacock sanctuary on the surrounding scrub hills.

A rare village bird sanctuary in Maddur taluk where painted storks and spot-billed pelicans nest on trees right among the houses, protected by the villagers for generations.

The Gaganachukki segment of the Shivanasamudra falls, where the Kaveri drops in a wide horsetail cascade beside the Malavalli-side viewpoint; Asia’s first hydroelectric power station (1902) drew its power from here.