Kolkata, the gateway city to eastern India, is today three hundred years old and has always prided itself on being the bedrock of Indian tradition and culture. The city combines classical European architecture with traditional local styles to create a unique blend of the two. Once a group of small villages on the Hooghly (as the Ganga is called here), Kolkata grew to be the capital of the British empire, with grand palaces, buildings and shops that traded in some of the finest goods of the world. The city exemplifies the colonial grandeur of the days of the British Raj.