A country that built in stone because it had to
Our grandmother used to say that a Rajput king had three duties: to protect his people, to feed his gods and to keep his walls in repair. She was only half joking. A clan without a fort was a clan without a future, so every chief built one, and every king built bigger.
Always at war: the old kingdoms of Rajputana were small, proud and almost always fighting, with each other, with the sultans of Delhi, Malwa and Gujarat, and later with or for the Mughals.
The old treatises: Indian texts on statecraft describe different kinds of fort, and Rajasthan has examples of nearly all of them.
- UNESCO listing
- Hill Forts of Rajasthan, 2013
- The six
- Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Ranthambore, Gagron, Amber, Jaisalmer
- Kinds of fort
- Hill, desert, water and forest
- Treaties with Britain
- 1818
- Last great palace
- Umaid Bhawan, Jodhpur, 1943
- The giri durg, or hill fort: Chittorgarh and Kumbhalgarh hold their ridges above the plain.
- The dhanva durg, or desert fort: protected by miles of sand, which is exactly what Jaisalmer is.
- The jal durg, or water fort: Gagron near Jhalawar sits where two rivers meet and wrap it on three sides.
- The van durg, or forest fort: Ranthambore, hidden in the jungle, where tigers now walk past its gates.
- What UNESCO saw: in 2013 six forts were inscribed together as the Hill Forts of Rajasthan, and the listing recognises what we were taught as children.
- Whole defended landscapes: these are not single buildings. Each has gates, walls, reservoirs, temples, markets and palaces, built over centuries by people who expected to be besieged.
- Then the story changes: from the seventeenth century, as the Mughal peace and later the British treaties of 1818 made sieges rare, the kings came down from the hills.
- Palaces on the plains: they built beside lakes and in gardens, from the City Palaces of Jaipur and Udaipur to Lalgarh in Bikaner, and finally Umaid Bhawan in Jodhpur, finished in 1943 as the last great palace of princely India.
- Both halves of the story: the fort built for survival and the palace built for pleasure. The best journeys put them side by side.
How to read a fort, gate by gate
- Pol
- A gate
- Burj and parkota
- Bastion and curtain wall
- Mardana and zenana
- The men's halls and the women's rooms
- Jharokha
- A projecting latticed balcony
- Sheesh mahal
- A mirrored room made for lamplight
The pol, a gate built to stop an elephant
A chain of gates: a pol is a gate, and the great forts have a series of them, set at sharp angles on a zigzag ramp so an army could never charge straight up.
- Built against elephants: the turns meant a war elephant could never get a run at the doors. Look for iron spikes on the old wooden leaves, set at the height of an elephant's forehead.
- Seven at each: Mehrangarh has seven gates and Chittorgarh has seven as well, and each one records a moment in the clan's history.
- Count them on the way up: it makes the climb go faster.
The burj and the parkota, bastion and wall
The words: a burj is a bastion, usually round, and the parkota is the curtain wall that joins them.
- Jaisalmer's bastions: ninety-nine of them, most built or rebuilt between 1633 and 1647.
- Kumbhalgarh's wall: it runs for about 36 kilometres over the hills.
- Look down, not out: the slits and overhangs were for pouring, dropping and firing, and the view tells you exactly where an attacker would have stood.
Mardana and zenana, the two halves of a palace
The mardana: the public halls where the king met his nobles and petitioners, the diwan-i-aam for public audience and the diwan-i-khas for private.
- The zenana: the rooms of the royal women, usually higher, deeper and more richly decorated.
- How they connect: narrow stairs and screened passages link the two halves.
- Where the beauty is: most of it is in the zenana, because that is where the family actually lived.
The jharokha, a window for watching unseen
What it is: a jharokha is a projecting stone balcony, carved and latticed.
- What it was for: the women of the household could watch the courtyard, the street or a procession without being seen.
- Where to see them: Mehrangarh is lined with them. Stand inside one and look through the stone lace, and you'll understand in a second how the royal women saw the world.
- Read more: our journal explains what a jharokha is and how to spot the regional styles.
The sheesh mahal, a room made of light
What it is: a sheesh mahal is a mirrored room, its walls and ceiling set with thousands of pieces of convex glass.
- Made for lamplight: one flame becomes a sky full of stars, and on a winter night the room would have glittered and stayed warm.
- Where to see them: Amber has the most famous, and Mehrangarh, Junagarh and Samode have their own.
- Try the old trick: ask your guide to cup a phone torch in their hands inside one. The effect still works.
The tank and the temple, the two things a fort cannot live without
Water first: every fort was a water engineering project. Rain was caught on the slopes, led through channels into tanks and stored underground.
- The lesson of Kumbhalgarh: it fell only once, and it fell for lack of water.
- The family goddess: every fort has one, Chamunda at Mehrangarh and Shila Devi at Amber, and these temples are still in daily worship.
- A fort still alive: when you see families touching a wall and leaving red powder, you are watching a fort that is still part of daily life.
The great forts, and the hour for each
- Best hour
- Opening time, or the last two hours of light
- Allow
- Two to three hours for each great fort
- Largest
- Chittorgarh, about 280 hectares
- Longest wall
- Kumbhalgarh, about 36 km
- Still lived in
- Jaisalmer, about 4,000 people
Mehrangarh, Jodhpur, at opening time
Founded: Rao Jodha began the fort on a lone red ridge in 1459. It stands about 122 metres above the plain, its walls rising straight out of the cliff.
- Kipling's verdict: he thought it might have been built by Titans.
- Best-kept fort in India: the Mehrangarh Museum Trust has run it since the early 1970s, with clear labels, good audio guides and galleries of howdahs, palanquins and Jodhpur paintings.
- Our order: be at the gate as it opens, see the Phool Mahal and Takhat Vilas before the groups, then walk down through the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park.
Amber, Jaigarh and Nahargarh, from dawn to dusk
Founded: Raja Man Singh I began Amber in 1592 above Maota Lake, and his successors kept adding courts for generations.
Two tastes meet: the fort reads like a lesson in how Rajput and Mughal taste came together.
- Morning: arrive at opening time for the Sheesh Mahal and the palace of Man Singh.
- Late afternoon: climb to Jaigarh on the hill of eagles above it, where the Jaivana cannon was cast in 1720.
- Sunset: follow the ridge road to Nahargarh, built in 1734, for the light over the pink city. It is the best fort day in Rajasthan.
Jaisalmer, the fort people still live in, at four in the afternoon
Founded: Rawal Jaisal began his fort on the yellow ridge of Trikuta in 1156.
A living fort: around four thousand people still live inside its walls.
- Sonar Qila: locals call it the golden fort, and in the late afternoon it earns the name.
- Why it is fragile: its soft rock was never meant to absorb the water a modern town pours into it, so we put guests in hotels outside the walls and spend the days inside.
- Our order: the Jain temples in the morning, tea with families our guides have known for years, and the ramparts as the light turns.
Chittorgarh, in the early morning and the last light
Size: its walls enclose about 280 hectares on a plateau about 180 metres above the plains, which makes it the largest fort in India.
- History: the capital of Mewar from the eighth century until 1568, through three great sieges in 1303, 1535 and 1567 to 1568.
- What to expect: the most moving day in Rajasthan, and also the hottest, because there is little shade.
- Our order: arrive as it opens, walk the palace of Rana Kumbha and the two towers before midday, and finish on the western ramparts at sunset.
Kumbhalgarh, the wall at dawn and the lit fort at night
Builder: Rana Kumbha, with his architect Mandan, in the mid-fifteenth century, high in the Aravallis about 1,100 metres above sea level.
- The wall: it loops for about 36 kilometres over the hills.
- Refuge of Mewar: the infant Udai Singh was crowned here, and it is believed Maharana Pratap was born here.
- Stay the night: walk the wall in the first two hours after sunrise, and stay after the evening show to see the bastions lit against the dark hills.
Junagarh, Bikaner, in the morning light
Builder: Karan Chand, minister of Raja Rai Singh, between 1589 and 1594. Its walls were never taken by siege.
Why the rooms survive: Bikaner was rarely attacked, so its interiors were never looted and are among the finest in Rajasthan.
- Anup Mahal: red and gold from floor to ceiling.
- Badal Mahal: painted with blue rain clouds, in a city where rain is precious.
- For children: a First World War biplane in the museum, which our younger guests always remember.
Taragarh and the Garh Palace, Bundi, at first light
The star fort: tradition credits Rao Bar Singh with building it on the ridge in 1354.
- The Garh Palace: it cascades down the hillside below, wing below wing, and Kipling described it as the sort of building men see in uneasy dreams.
- The Chitrashala: the turquoise picture gallery that brings many of our guests to Bundi.
- Go early: climb to Taragarh while the valley is still in mist, and keep your bag zipped, because the macaques are fast.
Ranthambore and Gagron, the forest fort and the river fort
Ranthambore: it stands inside the tiger reserve, where Hammir Dev defied Alauddin Khalji until the fort fell in 1301.
- The climb: pilgrims still walk up to its Ganesh temple, and you may pass langurs and sambar on the way.
- Gagron: in Hadoti, at the confluence of the Ahu and the Kali Sindh, with water on three sides. In the monsoon it looks launched into the river.
- Why go: both are UNESCO forts and both are quiet, a joy for travellers who have already seen the famous ones.
Gwalior, beyond Rajasthan, for the tiled palace
Worth a day: if you are travelling on to central India, Gwalior Fort deserves one.
- The tiled palace: the eastern cliff carries the palace of Raja Man Singh Tomar, with an outer wall of blue and yellow tiles, the most beautiful facade of any fort in north India.
- Temples on the plateau: the ninth-century Teli ka Mandir and the Sas-Bahu temples.
- Route: it fits naturally on a journey to Orchha and Khajuraho.
The palaces, where the families came down from the hills
- Jaipur City Palace
- In the city laid out in 1727
- Udaipur City Palace
- Begun after 1559; largest in Rajasthan
- Lake Palace
- Built 1743 to 1746
- Umaid Bhawan
- 1929 to 1943
- Lalgarh
- 1896 to 1926
The City Palace, Jaipur
A working home: it stands at the heart of the city Sawai Jai Singh II laid out in 1727, and the former ruling family lives in the seven-storeyed Chandra Mahal.
- The flag: it flies over the Chandra Mahal when the head of the family is at home.
- Private tours: the public museum is good, but the private tours of the Chandra Mahal, which we arrange where the palace allows, take you into gilded and mirrored rooms most visitors only glimpse from a doorway.
- Pritam Niwas Chowk: four painted gates stand for the seasons.
The City Palace, Udaipur
Begun: by Maharana Udai Singh II on the ridge above Lake Pichola after he founded the city in 1559. His successors kept building for four hundred years.
- The largest: it is the largest palace complex in Rajasthan.
- More ornate as you climb: from the glass peacocks of the Mor Chowk to a garden courtyard at the top of a natural hill.
- Our order: arrive at opening time and go straight to the top for the view over the lake.
The Lake Palace and Jag Mandir, Udaipur
Jag Niwas: built between 1743 and 1746 as a summer palace on its own island in Pichola, and a hotel for more than half a century.
- Who can land: only guests and diners.
- Jag Mandir: on the southern island, begun around 1620. It is said to have sheltered the Mughal prince Khurram, the future Shah Jahan, in 1623.
- The gentlest palace visit in India: a private boat between the two islands at sunset.
Umaid Bhawan, Jodhpur
Built: on Chittar Hill, from 1929 to 1943. Maharaja Umaid Singh partly meant it as famine relief.
- The architect: Henry Lanchester gave it some of the finest Art Deco interiors in Asia, under a dome about 31 metres high.
- Three lives at once: the family still lives in one wing, a part is a hotel, and a small museum is open to visitors.
- In the museum: twentieth-century royal life, with clocks, photographs and vintage cars.
Lalgarh, Bikaner
Built: begun in 1896 by the regency governing Bikaner and finished in 1926.
The design: by Samuel Swinton Jacob, in red Thar sandstone carved as fine as lace.
- Why Junagarh has its name: when the royal family moved here, the old fort became Junagarh, literally the old fort.
- Today: part is the Laxmi Niwas Palace hotel, and the Shri Sadul Museum fills another wing.
- Come for tea: on the terrace, when the stone turns the colour of rose petals.
Deeg, the palace made for rain
Where: about 32 kilometres north-west of Bharatpur.
- What it was: the summer retreat of the Jat kings, a palace of pavilions and water gardens built to imitate the monsoon.
- The fountains: on a few days each year they are switched on and the whole town comes to watch.
- Why we like it: it is far less visited than the Rajput palaces and sits on the way between Agra and Jaipur.
Sleeping inside the story
Where heritage hotels began: after the princely states joined India, many royal and noble families had vast houses and shrinking incomes. Some turned their palaces into hotels, and a few of the earliest are still the grandest in the country.
Three kinds to choose from: palaces run by the great hotel groups, palaces run by the families themselves, and small country forts where the owner may join you for dinner.
- Rambagh Palace
- Garden house 1835, hotel 1957
- Umaid Bhawan
- Partly a hotel since 1971
- Neemrana
- Fort dating from 1464
- Khimsar
- Since the sixteenth century
- A great palace hotel: service, space and history in one.
- A family-run fort: intimacy, with stories at the table, the family's own recipes and a guide who is often a cousin.
- Our usual mix: one grand palace in a city and one rural fort in between. Our guides to palace hotels and heritage havelis explain the difference.
The grand palaces of the cities
Rambagh Palace, Jaipur: Rambagh Palace began as a garden house in 1835 and became a hotel in 1957.
Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur: Umaid Bhawan Palace has been partly a hotel since 1971.
- On the water: the Taj Lake Palace floats on Pichola.
- In Bikaner: Laxmi Niwas Palace fills part of Lalgarh.
- Ask us for the room: in a palace the difference between a good room and a great one is often the view.
Inside the City Palace of Udaipur
Two hotels inside the walls: both run by the family's own group.
- Shiv Niwas: Shiv Niwas Palace curves around a courtyard pool above the lake.
- Fateh Prakash: Fateh Prakash Palace holds the Durbar Hall and the Crystal Gallery.
- The privilege: walking the palace courtyards in the evening, when the day visitors have left.
Forts turned into hotels
Neemrana: Neemrana Fort-Palace dates from 1464 and climbs a hillside between Delhi and Alwar in a stack of terraces and courts that was never made uniform.
- Bishangarh: Alila Fort Bishangarh is a warrior fort on a granite hill north of Jaipur.
- Khimsar: Khimsar Fort has stood at the edge of the Thar since the sixteenth century.
- Near Chittorgarh: Castle Bijaipur is our favourite base.
Village forts with the family at home
Owned by descendants: some of our happiest nights are in small forts still owned by the families of the nobles who built them.
- Our favourites: Rohet Garh near Jodhpur, Deogarh Mahal in the hills of Mewar, Rawla Narlai beneath its granite hill and Samode Palace in its Aravalli valley.
- More visit than hotel: each feels less like a hotel and more like staying with a family.
- The background: our journal explains the rawla and the thikana, the old noble estates behind them.
How we arrange a fort day
It starts the evening before: we check the opening time, the festival calendar and anything happening at the family temple, then set the wake-up call.
First through the gate: your chauffeur has you there as it opens.
- Start
- At the gate as it opens
- Guides
- Licensed, local, paid by us, no commission
- Private access
- Only where the site allows; confirmed first
- Evening options
- Rampart dinners, light and sound shows
- Our guides: licensed, local and paid properly by us, so they never need to steer you to a shop.
- People who belong there: many grew up within sight of the walls they show you, and they know the gatekeepers, the priests and the families who live inside.
- The route: the finest rooms first, before the tour groups, and the ramparts later when the light softens.
- Beyond the usual route: where the sites allow it, we arrange private access to rooms, curator-led visits to museum galleries and tea on a terrace once the courts empty.
- Never promised early: these depend on the palace, the season and the family's own plans, so we confirm them before we offer them.
Dinners on the ramparts
The setting: some palaces and fort hotels will set a table on a terrace, a bastion or a courtyard after dark.
- The evening: lamps, musicians and a Rajput menu.
- Where we have hosted them: at fort hotels in the countryside and in the courtyards of city palaces. Our private palace dinner page explains how they work.
Meeting the families
Still at home: many former ruling and noble families live in their palaces and forts, and some are happy to meet guests over tea or dinner.
- Personal, not a performance: we arrange these only when a family is willing.
- Before you go: we explain the customs beforehand. Read more on meeting Rajasthan's royal families.
Walks along the walls
Kumbhalgarh: long walks on the great wall with a local guide and a car waiting at the end.
- Jaisalmer and Bundi: the ramparts and lanes at first light.
- Read more: our journal describes the Kumbhalgarh wall walk in detail.
The light and sound shows
Where: several forts, among them Chittorgarh and Kumbhalgarh, hold evening shows that tell their history with voices and coloured light.
- What to expect: dramatic and patriotic, and usually in Hindi, so our guides sit with you and translate the key moments.
- The best part at Kumbhalgarh: afterwards, when the walls stay lit for a while.
When to come, and what each season does to the stone
October to March: warm, clear days and cool nights, the season for long fort days on foot.
December and January: the stone holds the night's cold, so bring a shawl for a dawn visit to Amber or Mehrangarh.
February and March: our favourite months for the desert forts, with warm days and mild evenings.
- Best months
- October to March
- Desert forts
- February and March
- Hot months
- April to June, often above 40°C
- Monsoon
- July to September, green hills
- Festivals
- Navratri, RIFF in October, Kumbhalgarh in December
- April to June: the heat is serious, often above 40°C, and the plateaus of Chittorgarh and Kumbhalgarh have little shade. We plan forts for the first two or three hours of the day, then a pool and a long lunch.
- The monsoon, July to September: our secret season. The Aravallis turn green, clouds drift through the windows of Badal Mahal at Kumbhalgarh, the tanks fill and Gagron stands in brown floodwater.
- Month by month: our best time to visit Rajasthan guide has the detail.
- Navratri: the fort temples of Amber and Chittorgarh fill with devotees for nine nights.
- October at Mehrangarh: the Rajasthan International Folk Festival turns the fort into a stage, close to the full moon.
- December at Kumbhalgarh: the Kumbhalgarh Festival brings dancers to the fort. We confirm the dates each year and plan the quiet visits around them.
Who will love it, and how we change it for them
Couples
The hours other people miss: Amber at dawn, Nahargarh at dusk, a boat to the Lake Palace after dark.
- The stays: pair one grand palace hotel with one small family fort.
- One evening free: for a dinner on a terrace. Our Rajasthan for Two journey does exactly that.
Families with children
What children love: cannon, gates with spikes, secret passages and stories with heroes.
- The winners: Jaigarh's giant cannon, Junagarh's biplane, Mehrangarh's ramparts and the lit walls of Kumbhalgarh.
- The pace: fort visits of two hours, with a picnic or a pool in the afternoon.
- The stories: we give the guide permission to tell the gory bits. See our family journeys.
History lovers and repeat visitors
Go deeper: Chittorgarh with a historian guide, Gagron and Bundi in Hadoti, and Gwalior beyond.
- One loop: our twelve-night forts and palaces grand tour links the great fortresses.
- The quieter ones: Offbeat Rajasthan takes them in.
Travellers with limited mobility
Built to be hard to climb: most forts have steep ramps, uneven stone and many steps.
- Easier ways in: Mehrangarh has a lift, and Amber can be reached by jeep to an upper gate.
- A patient guide: can plan a route around the steepest parts.
- Palaces on the plains: Lalgarh and the City Palace of Jaipur are easier. Ask us, and read our guide to accessible travel.
Respect, ethics and what we won't do
No elephant rides: we don't book them up to Amber or anywhere else. The elephants work long days on hot stone, and there are kinder ways to reach a palace. Our journal explains why we don't offer elephant rides.
At the memorials: at the sati handprints inside Mehrangarh's Loha Pol and the jauhar sites of Chittorgarh, keep your voice low and your camera down. Local families still touch these places and leave vermilion.
- Elephant rides
- Never
- Temples
- Shoes off, shoulders and knees covered
- Drones
- Only with permission
- Jaisalmer
- Stay outside the fort walls
- At fort temples: take your shoes off, cover shoulders and knees, and ask before photographing inside. Shila Devi at Amber and Chamunda at Mehrangarh are family shrines first.
- People who live inside: ask before you photograph them, especially at Jaisalmer, where the lanes are their front rooms.
- Hands off: don't climb on memorials, chhatris or cannon for photographs, and don't touch painted walls or use a flash near murals.
- Drones: we never fly them at monuments without permission, and we ask guests not to either.
- Touts: say no, politely, to the men at car parks who promise shortcuts, photos or a cousin's shop. Our guides take no commission.
- In Jaisalmer: stay outside the fort walls. The hill cannot take more water, and your choice helps keep it standing.
Where to begin
- First journey
- Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur
- On the way
- A night at Kumbhalgarh
- For the desert
- Add Jaisalmer
- For painted rooms
- Add Bikaner
- For history
- Add Chittorgarh
- Udaipur: the City Palace and lakes of Udaipur, with a night at Kumbhalgarh on the road between.
- The journeys: that route sits at the heart of our Royal Rajputana and our Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur journeys.
- Add one more: Jaisalmer if you want the desert, Bikaner if you love painted rooms, and Chittorgarh if history moves you.
- Read before you come: our guide to Rajasthani architecture and our short history of Rajasthan.
- Then tell us: which stories you most want to hear, and we will build the days around the forts that tell them best.