Chittorgarh

From Udaipur to Ranthambore National Park is a 7 hour journey, so we had decided to do this over two days with an overnight stop at a homestay in Chittorgarh, giving us the opportunity to explore the largest fort in India.

We arrived at the homestay around noon. It’s a large house with a number of internal courtyards and balconies, a roof terrace and 9 rooms available for let. There were only two couples booked in last night - us and two much younger Americans who had both resigned from their jobs to spend a year travelling.

The house was renovated between 2008 and 2011 with help from a Swiss couple - it was unclear whether this was a business proposition or philanthropy but its aims were to preserve the heritage of the dwellings within the fort and to provide employment for local people. It was very nicely done - pretty, clean and comfortable as you can see from the pictures below.

We were given a delicious lunch (all food was vegetarian) and then set off on our tour of the fort. Parvati and Sudhir, our hosts, are both licensed guides and Parvati took us on our tour.

In reality, it’s a citadel, the entire hilltop of 13 square kilometres surrounded by massive walls. Entry was originally only from the the eastern side, through 7 gates - there is now another road on the western side which also climbs through 7 gates to reach the hilltop. It was developed over the 8th-16th centuries, with numerous temples and palaces within the fortifications, as well as a small town (still home to about 5,000 people). The palaces and temples (both Jain and Hindu) were built from stone quarried from the hill top, with the resulting holes then utilised as lakes to retain drinking water.

One of the Jain temples….

…a watch tower on the eastern side, again built of elaborately carved blocks - sculpted on the ground and then hoisted into position…

…another Jain temple…

…the seventh and last gateway on the original approach, showing the spikes meant to deter a head on charge by elephants…

…a Hindu temple, with Parvati in full flow…

…with Parvati at the Padmini Palace…

…and finally round to the main conglomeration of buildings, where I was able to capture an image more or less identical to that adorning the front cover of my UNESCO World Heritage book!

An extraordinary place, and beautiful late afternoon light for photographs. Onward this morning, after a good meal and a good sleep, to Ranthambore National Park. We’ve settled into our hotel and hope to see tigers tomorrow.