Nainital is a popular hill station of India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the High Court of the state being located there, and is the headquarters of the Kumaon division as well as an eponymous district. It also houses the Governor of Uttarakhand, who resides in the Raj Bhavan. Nainital was the summer capital of the United Provinces.
Nainital is located in the Kumaon foothills of the outer Himalayas at a distance of 285 km from the state capital Dehradun and 345 km from New Delhi, the capital of India. Situated at an altitude of 1,938 metres above sea level, the city is set in a valley containing an eye-shaped lake, approximately two miles in circumference, and surrounded by mountains, of which the highest are Naina Peak on the north, Deopatha on the west, and Ayarpatha on the south. From the tops of the higher peaks, "magnificent views can be obtained of the vast plain to the south, or of the mass of tangled ridges lying north, bound by the great snowy range which forms the central axis of the Himalayas." The hill station attracts tourists round the year.