Things to do
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Jag Mandir
Three maharanas worked on this island palace across a century, and in 1623 it sheltered the Mughal prince who would later rule as Shah Jahan, then in revolt against his father. A row of carved stone elephants guards the landing, with the domed Gul Mahal behind a garden court. Access is by boat, and the crossing usually forms part of a lake trip.
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Lake Pichola
Dammed in 1362 to water the valley and named for the village of Picholi, the lake carries the two island palaces that supply the city its postcard. Boats leave from a ghat inside the palace complex, and the sunset departure fills first. After a weak monsoon the level drops and the far arm can go to mud, which no boat timetable mentions.
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City Palace
Successive Mewar rulers extended this granite and marble complex above Lake Pichola for close to four hundred years, and it remains the largest palace in Rajasthan. The museum route runs through mirrored halls, a courtyard of glass mosaic peacocks and balconies hanging over the water. That circuit is narrow and one way, so it slows to a shuffle once the tour groups arrive.
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Jagdish Temple
Worship has gone on without a break here since 1651, when Maharana Jagat Singh raised a tall Nagara shrine to Vishnu a few steps outside his own palace gate. Marble stairs flanked by elephants climb to the porch, where a brass Garuda faces the doorway. Carved bands of dancers and riders cover the outer walls. Shoes come off at the bottom of the marble stairs.
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Monsoon Palace
Maharana Sajjan Singh began a hilltop observatory on the Aravalli ridge in 1884 and died before the plan got far, leaving a white palace later used to watch the monsoon arrive. Its rooms are largely bare. The reason to climb is the view west over Fateh Sagar at sunset, and the site lies inside a wildlife sanctuary, so entry is ticketed at the gate below.
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Saheliyon-ki-Bari
Sangram Singh laid out this walled garden in the north of the city for the women of his household and their companions, giving it a lotus pool, marble pavilions and elephants that spout into the water. The fountains run on pressure from the lake above, with no pump in the system. Morning is the hour for it; midday sun flattens the whole place.
