A picturesque village at the foot of the Khasi Mountains has the unwelcome record as the wettest place in the world.
It rains almost every day throughout the year in the village of Mawsynram in the Indian state of Meghalaya.
The annual rainfall is an astonishing 12,000 litres per square metre.
Roughly 4,000 permanent residents brave the constant rainfall and battle the constant humidity.
Mawsynram’s state Meghalaya means ‘the abode of the clouds’. The nearby Himalayan mountain range blocks clouds moving northwards, resulting in near-constant rainfall in the Indian village.
During the British rule of India, the imperial authorities nicknamed the village the ‘Scotland of the East’.
The record-breaking rainfall has shaped a unique landscape in the area, attracting tourists who flock to see the abundant waterfalls, incredible caves, and countless gushing rivers, fed primarily from the rain.
One nearby cave is the world’s longest.
Krem Puri is nearly 25 kilometres long, almost three times the height of Mount Everest.
Several extraordinary dinosaur fossils have also been found in this cave.
The wider state of Meghalaya is famous for its subtropical forests and biodiversity.
People can find swimming holes and living root bridges made out of trees.
However, visitors often skip the rainy season between June and September.
On a single day in June 2022, the village received 1003.6 millimeters of rain.
While English is the official language of the state, many rural areas in the region only speak Khasi, Garo, and Pnar.
