The city of Jaipur is the second “peak” of the Golden Triangle of India. The sights of Jaipur are perhaps even more interesting than the sights of the first “peak” of the triangle, Delhi. Now that from Delhi you can head to Jaipur via taxi, you can visit JaipurDelhiTaxi .
Impression of the city
Jaipur is located 250 km southwest of Delhi. Houses on 3-5 floors are painted in dirty pink tones. Jaipur is proudly called “pink,” because in 1876, upon the arrival of the English Prince Albert, the future King Edward the 7th, the facades of the houses were painted in the Indian color of hospitality – pink. And since then, every 10 years, home owners are required to renew the color of building facades.
However, the historic city center is very interesting. At least the fact that Jaipur is one of the few Indian cities built according to the plan in accordance with the ancient Indian town-planning rules. It has a clear rectangular street system. There are fortress walls in it (though they are in unsightly condition now).
Palace of the Winds, or Hawa Mahal (in Hindi)
Palace of the Winds was built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799.
Hawa Mahal consists of a five-story facade with 953 windows draped with patterned grilles. They explain such a building by the desire of many Rajah wives to see what is happening on the street (and solemn processions and parades took place on this street), and at the same time remain invisible.
Astronomical complex
The astronomical complex includes 14 buildings, which are gigantic-sized instruments used to predict weather and eclipses, determine the time and distance to various celestial objects, and the like. According to the opinion existing at that time, the large dimensions contributed to the great accuracy of the devices. For example, in the Jaipur Observatory there are the largest sundials of the entire world, with a diameter of 27 meters. It is worth noting that the clock is not only maintained in working condition, but also shows the exact time.
Albert Hal Museum
The Albert Hall Museum is a kind of historical museum, with it not only representing Indian history, but also fragments of Egyptian, Japanese, and the Middle East. There are interesting exhibits, and as in all historical museums it is dusty and interesting in places.
Jaipur
In the center of the city there is also a square pond, on one side of which there is some kind of palace, the entrance to which is free. Its roof offers beautiful views of the pond and the surrounding area.
The city gives the impression of a quieter and calmer place compared to Mumbai. But from a tourist point of view, although hotels are cheaper, but this is offset by more expensive food, as in fact, there is no choice of a cafe and there is a hotel, plus there are very few places in the city where you can find something meat, almost all cafes are vegetarian. Only in the last evening we managed to find a terrible local diner near the railway station, where there was chicken and fish. The experiment was successful, everyone is alive except chicken. Probably the main attraction of the city is Amber fort.
