Jaipur
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Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, is the Pink City: Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II laid it out in 1727, and its old city was painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876. I spent September 21, 2022, there, the morning after an evening at Fatehpur Sikri. The morning began at the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of Winds, whose 953 latticed windows let the royal women watch the street without being seen, and went on to Amber Fort, on its ridge above Maota Lake, where the Sheesh Mahal, the hall of mirrors, glitters with inlaid glass. On the way back, we stopped at Man Sagar Lake, where Jal Mahal stands out in the water below the Aravalli hills. In the afternoon, I saw the giant instruments of the Jantar Mantar, Jai Singh’s observatory, and went through the City Palace, with its courtyard of four painted gates, one for each season, and the Gangajali, the silver urns a maharaja filled with water from the Ganges to take to London in 1902. After dark, the Hawa Mahal was lit up orange above the traffic.
Photos from Jaipur
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Jal Mahal, the Water Palace, out in Man Sagar Lake.
The Pritam Niwas Chowk, whose four gates stand for the four seasons.
A Gangajali, made to carry Ganges water to London for the coronation of Edward VII.