Exploring

With the elephant ride safely behind us, let's look around a bit in the Amer Fort. This is quite a place.

Where do we start?

From Wikipedia: The Amer Fort, along with Jaigarh Fort, located immediately above on the Cheel ka Teela (Hill of Eagles) of the same Aravalli range of hills (see it up there on the left?), is considered as one complex, as the two are well 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 the more redoubtable Jaigarh Fort.

With its large ramparts, series of gates and cobbled paths, the fort overlooks the Maota Lake.

Hey look everybody! Monkeys!

Say, what's that stuff on the...oh.

From Wikipedia: 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. The fort contains 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. The palace was lived in by the Rajput Maharajas and their families until 1727AD, when the capital was moved from Amer to Jaipur.

So let's go exploring!

A nice lady sweeps the steps clean.

Look at Don down there bargaining for a fine print.

Monkeys. Monkeys everywhere.

Nice view. I wonder what it would look like on a clear day?

Like this picture Bill found on the internet, I betcha.

Dropping off lots of tourists.

Bill's imagining he's The Man Who Would Be King.

That's the view over that way.

And this is the view over this way.

Those are actually windows up there under the cupolas. The queen and her handmaidens could sit up there and look out through the delicately carved marble screens, while nobody down below could see them. Wikipedia says: Ganesh Pol or the Ganesh Gate, named after the Hindu god Lord Ganesh who removes all obstacles in life, is the entry into the private palaces of the Maharajas. It is a three level structure which has many frescoes. It was also built at the orders of the Mirza Raja Jai Singh (1621–1627) and leads to the private quarters of the royal family. Above this gate is the Suhag Mandir where ladies of the royal family used to watch through the latticed windows functions held in the Diwan-i-Am.

Sure enough, there's Ganesh over there on the wall. Opulent, isn't it?

Pretty garden.

And over there behind that door is a pretty nifty device.

The temperature in summer around here gets into the triple digits Farenheit, so whoever designed this place had to come up with a way to keep the king cool. So here's a 16th century air conditioner. Water would cascade over that porous slab of marble and air would blow across it. Pretty nifty!

And over there is the Mirror Palace.

From Wikipedia: This is the Jai Mandir, which is exquisitely beautified with glass inlaid panels and multi-mirrored ceilings. The mirrors are of convex shape and designed with colored foil and paint which would glitter bright under candle nights at the time it was in use. Also known as Sheesh Mahal (mirror palace), the mirror mosaics and colored glasses were a "glittering jewel box in flickering candle light".

It is stunning, even in daylight.

Bill thinks his bedroom should look like this.

How come his interior decorator never came up with ideas like this?

Bill wishes he could go inside, but back in the 70s and 80s the tourists began painting graffiti on the walls, so the government stopped allowing access by the unwashed masses.

So Bill just stuck his arms as far into the rooms as he could and snapped away with his camera, hoping he'd be able to see more in his pictures when he returned home. Worked out pretty well.

Nice.

Very nice.

Exceptionally nice.

OK, enough of the mirror room, now what else is here?

Another fort even higher? Yep. Turns out there are tunnels through the mountain up to that fort, just in case the royal family should ever need to escape to higher ground.

Bill's impressed.

The elephants continue trundling up the hill. See those guys on the wall to the left of the elephants? They're snapping pictures they hope to sell to the tourists.

View from the top.

Well, near the top.

March of the elephants.

All day, every day, seemingly without end.

Nice view of a garden in the lake.

Still more tourists! Wikipedia says: Annual tourist visitation to the Amer Palace in Amer town was reported by the Superintendent of Department of Archaeology and Museums to the Amer Palace as 5000 visitors a day, and 1.4 million visitors were reported during 2007. I guess everybody wants to ride an elephant.