Nahan is the headquarters of Sirmaur district, a hill town at around 932 metres on a ridge of the Shivaliks. It is calmer than the better-known Himachal hill stations — no Mall Road crush, no foreign-tourist circuit — and has a colonial-era core of bungalows, gardens, and a small palace that the Sirmaur royal family still partly occupies.
The Old Bazaar at the centre runs along a winding ridge; the Jagannath Temple (1681) is the most important religious site; and the small Choura Maidan, a flat-topped parade ground commissioned by the British, is now the town's public lawn. Most visitors come en route to Renuka Lake or as a base for the long climb up Churdhar.