Mewar, Aravalli Hills
Udaipur
The City on the Water
A palace city built around three artificial lakes, ruled by the same family since the eighth century.
See the journeyOne of the three ways
Royal India
Palaces built on water, forts built on ridgelines, and a courtly imagination that never quite ended.
For six centuries the desert kingdoms of Rajasthan competed at something unusual: not conquest, but beauty. The result is a state where the architecture is startling even to people who have seen Europe’s great houses — palaces that appear to float on lakes, an observatory built of stone instruments the size of buildings, a city laid out on a grid in 1727 and painted pink for a visiting prince.
The families who built these places are, in several cases, still there. That is the difference between Rajasthan and a museum. Doors open here for people who arrive properly introduced, and the difference between seeing a palace and dining in one is entirely a matter of who is asking.
We keep the days unhurried and the rooms extraordinary.
The journeys