Amber Fort

Amber Fort — or Amer, after the town below it — was the seat of the Kachhwaha Rajput rulers until they moved to their newly planned city of Jaipur in 1727. The palace was begun under Raja Man Singh, expanded by Jai Singh I in the early 1600s, and extended further by his successors over the next 150 years. It stands on a ridge of the Aravalli hills above Maota Lake, its red sandstone and marble buildings and long ramparts climbing the slope. Higher still, on the Hill of Eagles, Jaigarh Fort guards it; the two are linked by an underground passage built as an escape route. In 2013 Amber became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the six Hill Forts of Rajasthan.

The palace combines Rajput building with Mughal ideas, arranged around a series of courtyards that become more private as you climb. The Suraj Pol, or Sun Gate, faces east and opens onto Jaleb Chowk, the great court where the ruler's guards paraded. A flight of stairs leads up to the small Sila Devi temple, behind silver-covered doors, whose goddess image Man Singh brought back from Bengal after a victory in 1604. In the second court, the Diwan-i-Aam, the hall of public audience, has a double row of columns topped with elephant-shaped capitals.

The painted Ganesh Pol, where the royal women watched ceremonies through latticed marble screens, leads into the private quarters. These face each other across a Mughal-style garden. On one side is the Jai Mandir, better known as the Sheesh Mahal or Mirror Palace, whose walls and ceilings are covered with convex mirror mosaics made to sparkle by candlelight. The rooms were neglected in the 1970s and have since been restored. Opposite is the Sukh Niwas, where water once ran through an open marble channel to cool the rooms before flowing out into the garden. Above the Jai Mandir is the Jas Mandir, a private audience hall with floral glass inlay.

Amber is Jaipur's biggest attraction, with some 1.4 million visitors recorded in 2007. Visitors can walk up the cobbled ramp from the lake, or take a jeep up the narrow road to the Sun Gate; jeeps are now widely considered the more ethical choice than the elephant rides once offered.

Getting there

Amber lies about 11 km north of central Jaipur. City bus no. 5 runs to the fort from the Hawa Mahal and New Gate area, and autorickshaws and taxis are easy to find in the city, though agree the return fare in advance. Jaipur International Airport (JAI) is about 18 km from the fort, and Jaipur has rail and road connections to Delhi and Agra.