The people of Mumbai have come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and speak over a dozen tongues, adding colour, flavour and texture to the Great Mumbai Melting Pot. Mumbai is the bubblegum glamour of Bollywood cinema, shopping malls full of designer labels, cricket on the Oval Maidan, promenading families eating bhelpuri on the beach at Chowpatty, red double-decker buses queuing in grinding traffic jams and the infamous cages of the red-light district.

This pungent drama is played out against a Victorian townscape more reminiscent of a prosperous 19th-century English industrial city than anything you'd expect to find on the edge of the Arabian Sea. It's a city with vibrant streetlife, India's best nightlife, and a wealth of bazaars.

Mumbai is located on Salsette Island which lies at the mouth of Ulhas River off the western coast of India in the coastal region known as the Konkan. Most of Mumbai is at sea level and the average elevation ranges from 10 to 15 metres. The northern part of Mumbai is hilly and the highest point of the city is at 450 metres (1,450 feet). Mumbai spans a total area of 468 km? (169 square miles).

Three lakes are located within the metropolitan limits ? the Tulsi Lake, Vihar Lake and the Powai Lake. The first two are located within the Borivali National Park and supply part of the city's drinking water. Mumbai also has three small rivers within the city limits originating in the National Park. The coastline of the city is indented with numerous creeks and bays. On the eastern seaboard, large mangrove swamps rich in biodiversity occupy most of the region.