Amer Fort was built by Man Singh in 1592, and subsequently expanded by Jai Singh I. It was the principal residence of the ruling Maharaja for the next 150 years until 1727 when the capital moved to nearby Jaipur.
There are six things of note:
First courtyard houses the Ganesh Pol, or Ganesh Gate. Ganesh was one of my favourite characters from my first trip to Asia – he’s the “remover of obstacles”. It’s an impressive structure, with more latticed windows through which the women would watch proceedings, and acts as the entrance to the Maharaja’s private palaces.
Second courtyard contains the Diwan-i-Am (hall of public audience), a regular feature in the forts I’ve visited here so far. It was used by the kings to receive petitions from his people. It’s two-tone structure of sandstone and marble makes it quite striking:
My favourite factoid was that Ram Singh II converted the rear portion into a billiard room! Good man.
Third courtyard is the private quarters of the palace, set around a Mughal-style garden. Jai Mandir, or Sheesh Mahal (“Mirror Palace”), catches the eye with its exquisite glass-inlaid panels and multi-mirrored ceilings designed to glitter in candlelight:
On the other side is the Sukh Niwas (Hall of Pleasure) with its distinctive marble inlay and small niches. A water channel running through the centre, and out into the garden, was designed to keep its residents cool – a rather innovative air-conditioning system:
Fourth courtyard led to the women’s quarters – royal family, concubines and mistresses. The king could visit the woman of his choosing without anyone knowing who’d been selected as all the rooms opened into a common corridor. Dirty old dog.
Ramparts were extensive – small rooms connected by corridors and staircases. It was incredible. You could walk round here for hours and still not see everything.
And I liked that tourists were allowed to explore at their leisure – it gave a lovely relaxed atmosphere to the place which is probably more similar to the original feel than if everything had been organised.
Tunnel from Amer Fort to Jaigarh Fort acted as an escape route. It’s described as “subterranean”. Except that most of it is above ground and open to the sky. So an open-air tunnel. It was a nice walk to Jaigarh Fort and back.
One of the more depressing parts of the day was seeing the convoy of elephants moving fat, wealthly, ignorant Europeans up to Amer Fort. Inhumane, degrading and unnecessary, the treatment of these elephants has been of a concern to authorities for some time, fuelled by tourist ignorance. No excuse, people.
In contrast, one of the most peaceful parts of the day was the first stop on our little tour – the Royal Gaitor:
It housed the tombs of deceased Maharajas and, in one case, that of fourteen children who died in an epidemic (of what, it wasn’t clear).
The latest addition to the collection almost shone in white marble:
And the day ended by running the gauntlet of the tuktuk drivers. We knew a return journey should cost 300R. The first offer was 600, and a little crowd gathered. He wouldn’t go below 400R. We realised that there was an etiquette amongst them whereby the first one to speak with us had first dibs – all the others quoted higher than 400R. Lesson learnt, we conceded – it’s only £1. But it’s not about the money, it’s the principle.
And so back via the Water Palace that we’d stopped at earlier in the day:
It’s a “palace” in the water. Nuff said.
