Hill station

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Image:Khajjiar himachal pradesh india summer.jpg

A summer view of Khajjiar, a hill station in Himachal Pradesh, north-east India.

Hill station is a term commonly used for a town usually at somewhat higher elevations in the Indian subcontinent. The term has been used elsewhere in colonial Asia (rarely in Africa), where towns have been founded by European colonial rulers as refuges from the summer heat. In the Indian context most hill stations are at an altitude of approximately between 1,000 and 2,500 metres (3,500 to 7,500 feet); very few are outside this range, though in Pakistan the altitude range is slightly higher.

The British Raj, and in particular the British Indian Army, founded perhaps 50 of the 80-odd hill stations in the Indian subcontinent; the remainder were built by various Indian rulers over the centuries as places of leisure or even as permanent capitals. Some respected historians such as Dane Kennedy say there are only 65 "true" hill stations in the subcontinent, if one combines adjoining stations and excludes small hamlets without civic facilities.

Several hill stations served as summer capitals of Indian provinces, princely states, or, in the case of Simla, of British India itself. Since Indian Independence, the role of these hill stations as summer capitals has largely ended, but many hill stations remain popular summer resorts.

Hill stations being at higher altitudes are cooler than plains. Temperatures are lower owing to the lower density of air as one goes up in the altitude as thin air absorbs less heat from solar energy.