Amber Fort

We spent our second day in Jaipur in Amber, also called Amer. Amber is the former capital of Jaipur state.

The main attraction in Amber is the Amber Fort, so this is where we went in the morning.

From Wikipedia: 

"Amer Fort ( also spelled and pronounced as Amber Fort) is located in Amer, a town  11 kilometres  from Jaipur. It is one of the principal tourist attractions in the Jaipur area, located high on a hill. 

Amer Fort was built by Raja Man Singh I and is known for its artistic style, blending both Hindu and Rajput elements. With its large ramparts, series of gates and cobbled paths, the fort overlooks the Maota Lake, at its forefront.

The aesthetic ambiance of this formidable fort is seen within its walls on a four level layout plan (each with a courtyard) in a well turned out opulent palace complex built with red sandstone and marble consisting of the Diwan-e-Aam or the "Hall of Public Audience", the Diwan-e-Khas or the "Hall of Private Audience", the Sheesh Mahal (mirror palace) or Jai Mandir, and the Sukh Niwas where a cool climate is artificially created by winds that blow over the water cascade within the palace. Hence, the Amer Fort is also popularly known as the Amer Palace. The palace was lived in by the Rajput Maharajas and their families.

This fort and  Jaigarh Fort, located immediately above, are considered as one complex, as the two are  connected by a subterranean passage. This passage was meant as an escape route in times of war for the royal family members and others in the Amer Fort to shift to  Jaigarh Fort."

We did not visit Jaigarh Fort, since our time was limited. We had other plans for the afternoon. (More about that in tomorrow's post.)

Let me show you around in Amber Fort:

There it lies, Amber Fort, reflected in the lake in front.

It is quite a climb, especially in the heat!

That's why you can opt to hire an elephant.

They usually go back down empty from within the fort, since people don't mind walking down.

But we decided to walk.....hot, hot....

From the fort we can see the immense walls of Jaigarh Fort.

View on lake, landscaped garden and fortified fort walls on hill across.

After entering through the main gate, you come onto a huge square, from where you take the stairs to another square and entrance. This will continue as you make your way through the palace-fort; it is huge and the different parts are connected through small stairs, alleys and corridors. This was intentional, to confuse possible intruders. And confusing it was, sometimes;-).

Beautiful decorations everywhere!

Also decorations on the ceilings:

This interior courtyard is flanked by galleries and rooms.

On one side of the courtyard we find the Mirror Palace, for me one of the highlights of the fort. The decorations are beautiful, abundant and well preserved.

It's not hard to imagine how a few candles would be reflected endlessly by all these tiny mirrors and what a fairytale-like effect this must have had!!!

Here we look down on one of many passageways:

On the coppola we see (very tiny) a monkey; he found himself quite a high place!

This pavilion on the second level has the 'peeping windows' (that I described and explained in yesterday's post) for the royal ladies to be able to observe without being seen themselves.

This tour comes to an end with a night-time picture of the fort.

It is definitely worth a visit and one can spend easily 3 hours there.

Tomorrow I will cover our Amber afternoon at Elefantastic. Be prepared for a whole lotta elephants!!!