Why a desert built staircases to water
The problem: after the monsoon the water table rises, then falls week by week. By May it may lie many metres down.
The answer: instead of lowering a bucket on a rope, build a staircase that follows the water down, so anyone can walk to the edge and fill a pot in any season.
- Rains
- Mostly July to September
- Built
- From at least the seventh century to the nineteenth
- Built by
- Kings, queens, merchants and village councils
- Purpose
- Water, recharge, shade and merit
- Cooler below
- Several degrees cooler than the street
- The bonus: a stepwell also recharges the ground. Rain running off streets and roofs soaked back into the earth through a town's network of wells and tanks.
- The merit: giving water was punya, religious merit. That is why so many stepwells carry carved gods and the names of their donors.
- The meeting place: women came at dawn and dusk with brass pots, away from the household. News travelled, marriages were discussed and travellers rested in the cool galleries.
How to read a stepwell in five minutes
Find the shaft first: in a true baori, a round or square shaft reaches the groundwater at one end. Everything else is the way down to it.
Follow the trench of steps: a long stepped corridor leads to the shaft, broken by landings where people could rest and set down their pots.
- Look at the pavilions: the pillared storeys across the trench are not only beautiful. They brace the side walls apart against the weight of the earth.
- Count the levels: the depth follows the water table. A deep well tells you how far the water fell in a bad summer.
- Notice the crossing flights: in a square kund, diagonal stairs on several sides let people reach the water from anywhere, full or nearly empty.
- Look for the niches: small shrines on the landings hold gods, often Ganesh or forms of Vishnu and the goddess. Water and worship were never separate.
- Find the donor: an inscription or a carved panel often names who paid for it. Ask your guide to read it with you.
The words for water
Where you'll see each: baoris in Bundi and Abhaneri, kunds in Amer and Bundi, jhalras in Jodhpur, joharas around Churu and Shekhawati.
- Baori
- A shaft to groundwater, reached by a long flight of steps
- Kund
- A square stepped tank, open to the sky
- Jhalra
- A stepped tank fed by seepage from a lake or slope
- Johara
- A shallow reservoir of the sandy north
- Tanka
- A covered cistern in a desert courtyard
- Vav
- The Gujarati word for a baori
- The tankas: on any drive across the Thar, the round white domes beside village houses are cisterns that fill from the roof in the rains.
- Talab and sagar: larger tanks and lakes, often dammed across a valley. Udaipur's lakes and Bundi's Nawal Sagar are the grand versions.
- The Shekhawati well: a raised platform with four tall pillars that carried the pulleys, often beside a painted pavilion. Our painted havelis page shows where.
The stepwells we bring guests to
Chand Baori, Abhaneri
Where: a farming village in Dausa district, about 95 kilometres east of Jaipur.
- When: dated on style to roughly 800 to 900 CE. Local tradition credits a Raja Chand.
- The numbers: about 3,500 steps in small double flights over thirteen storeys, falling about 30 metres.
- What to do: walk the whole verandah. Carved stones from the Harshat Mata temple next door lie at knee height. You can no longer go down, and the rim view is the best one.
Raniji ki Baori, Bundi
Who built it: Rani Nathavati, a queen of Rao Raja Anirudh Singh, in 1699.
- The depth: about 46 metres from street to water, down a long narrow flight framed by carved torana arches.
- What to look for: stone elephants on the walls and panels of Vishnu's avatars near the entrance.
- Best light: first thing in the morning, or late afternoon when the sun slants down its length.
Dabhai Kund and Nagar Sagar Kund, Bundi
Dabhai Kund: a great inverted pyramid of steps, a short drive from the old town. Children love counting its flights.
- Nagar Sagar Kund: twin tanks in the bazaar where women still fill pots in the morning. Ask before any photograph.
- Why Bundi matters: the town has more than fifty stepwells and tanks. It is the one place where water is the reason to stay two nights. See Bundi.
Panna Meena ka Kund, Amer
Where: in the lanes of old Amer, a short walk from Amber Fort.
- When: usually dated to the sixteenth century.
- The geometry: crossing staircases on every side. Our grandmother said you could never climb back up by the same stair you came down.
- The steps: often roped off now to protect them. Come straight after the fort, while the light still slants.
Toorji ka Jhalra, Jodhpur
Who built it: credited to Rani Tanwarji, a queen of Maharaja Abhay Singh, around 1740.
- Its revival: buried under silt and rubbish by the early 2000s, it was cleared by hand in the 2010s, revealing carved elephants, lions and cows.
- Where: in the old city between the clock tower and Mehrangarh. Come before nine, when it belongs to the neighbourhood.
Sethani ka Johara, Churu
- The story: a merchant's widow built it during the famine of 1899, giving work and wages to the starving.
- What you see: stone steps and domed sandstone pavilions in open sandy country. At the last light the water turns gold. See Churu.
Beyond Rajasthan: Patan, Adalaj and Delhi
Rani ki Vav, Patan: an eleventh-century queen's stepwell in Gujarat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its walls covered in hundreds of carved figures.
The queens who gave water
Bundi: Rani Nathavati gave the town Raniji ki Baori, literally the queen's stepwell. Three centuries later, nobody in Bundi calls it anything else.
Jodhpur: a queen of Maharaja Abhay Singh is remembered in Toorji ka Jhalra, the stepwell that bears her name.
- Patan: the grandest of all, Rani ki Vav in Gujarat, was built in memory of a king by his queen.
- Churu: the Sethani ka Johara is a merchant widow's gift, proof that the tradition reached far beyond the palaces.
- Why water: a well was public, sacred and useful at once. It served every caste and every traveller, and it earned merit for the giver.
- The songs: many Rajasthani folk songs are set at the well, where women met away from the household. Ask a singer at your hotel to sing one.
A stepwell trail across Rajasthan
Jaipur to Agra, via Abhaneri
- How: leave Jaipur after an early breakfast, reach Abhaneri while the light is low, then continue to Fatehpur Sikri and Agra.
- Where it fits: our classic Golden Triangle and the Agra to Jaipur via Abhaneri route.
A morning in Amer
- How: Amber Fort as the gates open, chai in the old town, then Panna Meena ka Kund and the printers of the Anokhi Museum.
- Where it fits: any stay in Jaipur, and our Jaipur in three nights journey.
A water morning in Bundi
- How: Raniji ki Baori at first light, the blue lanes to Nagar Sagar Kund, Dabhai Kund, then chai on a rooftop over Nawal Sagar.
- Where it fits: our offbeat Rajasthan journey, with Chittorgarh and Dungarpur.
An early walk in Jodhpur
- How: down through the blue lanes to Toorji ka Jhalra before nine, breakfast on a rooftop looking up at the fort, then Mehrangarh as it opens.
- Where it fits: any stay in Jodhpur. RAAS Jodhpur is a few minutes' walk away.
Shekhawati and Churu
- How: the pillared wells on the edges of the painted towns, then Sethani ka Johara at the last light.
- Where it fits: our painted towns of Shekhawati journey.
The right hour and the right season
Morning: one wall sits in shadow while the opposite wall glows, so the full depth of the pattern reads clearly.
Midday: the sun is overhead, the shadows flatten and the steps lose their drama. Go to lunch instead.
- Best window
- First two hours after sunrise
- Second window
- Late afternoon, especially in Bundi
- Avoid
- Late morning, flat light and coaches
- High water
- September and October, after the rains
- Hottest
- April and May, often above 40°C
- After the monsoon: the water stands highest and the lower flights vanish beneath it, which is how the builders meant them to look.
- Winter: soft light and cool mornings, perfect for walking between wells. Bring a shawl at dawn in December and January.
- Summer: water is low, the descent long and the heat serious. Come only in the first hour after opening.
- The monsoon itself: a gamble we love. Panna Meena fills with green water and the hills turn green, but steps are slippery and some lower stages close.
How the stepwells fell silent, and how some came back
The blessing: piped water and hand pumps reached most Rajasthani towns in the twentieth century. Nobody who carried water up a hundred steps would wish them away.
The loss: without daily use and cleaning, stepwells silted up. Some were locked, some collapsed and some became open dumps.
- The hidden cost: as wells fell out of use and borewells pumped deeper, the water table in many towns dropped. Older people in Bundi can name the year each well ran dry.
- The revival: the Archaeological Survey of India, state departments, trusts and private owners have cleaned and restored a number of stepwells in recent decades.
- The debate: restorations are uneven, and some have critics. A visit today is part of that story of loss and repair.
- Our part: we visit with local guides, keep groups small and never fly drones. Our sustainable travel piece explains the rest.
How to visit a stepwell well
Respect the barriers: Chand Baori and often Panna Meena are closed to walkers on the steps, and Raniji ki Baori's lowest stages are sometimes shut.
Wear shoes with grip: centuries of bare feet have polished the steps smooth, and the lower ones can be wet.
- Keep children close: many stepwells have no railings, and the drops are deep.
- Follow local custom: if people remove their shoes on the upper steps, do the same. Leave niches and shrines as you find them.
- Throw nothing in: no coins, flowers or food. Towns are working hard to keep their wells clean.
- Ask before photographing: especially women filling pots at the working tanks in Bundi.
- Skip the unofficial guide: decline politely at the gate. We send guides who can read the stones. Our temple etiquette guide covers shrines on the landings.
Photographing a stepwell
Go wide: a wide-angle lens from the rim captures the geometry of Chand Baori and Panna Meena in one frame.
Then go long: a short telephoto picks out a single torana, an elephant or a niche god in Raniji ki Baori.
- Use people for scale: a woman with a pot on a landing tells the story better than an empty flight. Ask first, always.
- Look up: from the lower steps of Toorji ka Jhalra, the fort appears above the rim. Most visitors never turn round.
- Permissions: professional shoots usually need permission, which we arrange in advance. More in our photography tips.
What most visitors miss
The temple beside the well: at Abhaneri, the Harshat Mata temple next to Chand Baori is the other half of the story. Water and worship were built together.
The fragments: the carved stones stacked in Chand Baori's verandah came from that temple. Read them at knee height with your guide.
- The far end: in Raniji ki Baori, walk to the end opposite the entrance and look back. The arches line up one behind another.
- The working tanks: at Nagar Sagar Kund in Bundi, the wells are still part of morning life. Watch for ten minutes before you lift a camera.
- The fort above: from the lower steps of Toorji ka Jhalra, Mehrangarh sits on its cliff above the rim.
- The plumbing: in Amer, Panna Meena belongs to a whole valley's system, from Jaigarh's tanks on the ridge to Maota Lake below the palace.
- The fort tanks: every great fort was a water project first. Ask about the tanks at Jaigarh and the spring-fed Gaumukh Kund at Chittorgarh Fort.
Where to stay close to the stepwells
For Amer and Panna Meena: The Raj Palace and Samode Haveli sit on the Amer side of Jaipur, so you reach the old town early.
For Toorji ka Jhalra: RAAS Jodhpur is a few minutes' walk away, below the fort.
- For Bundi: small family-run havelis in the old town put you a short walk from Raniji ki Baori. Our page on the heritage havelis of Bundi compares them.
- For Abhaneri: sleep in Jaipur and leave early, or break the drive towards Agra or Bharatpur.
- For Neemrana: the Neemrana Fort-Palace has a deep, many-levelled baori in the village below. Walk down early before you drive on.
Who will love the stepwells
Architects and designers: the engineering is as interesting as the geometry. Read our guide to reading Rajasthani architecture before you come.
Families: children treat a stepwell as a puzzle, counting triangles and hunting for elephants and lions. Visits are short, which helps.
- Travellers curious about water: stepwells explain how desert cities survived better than any museum. Pair them with the lakes of Udaipur.
- Guests with limited mobility: the rim is usually the best view, so most stepwells work well. See our accessible travel guide.
- Who may be disappointed: anyone expecting grand interiors and shade. A stepwell is a short, open-air stop, often with no cafe.
Go deeper
- Our experience page: stepwells of Rajasthan explains how we arrange each visit and which guides we use.