Touring the City of Lakes, Udaipur
The lakes and palaces of Udaipur, India, make for extraordinary sightseeing. Known as the “Venice of the East,” and the City of Lakes, this city was once the capital of the kingdom of Mewar, dating back 1200 years. When a place has this much history, there’s often a legend that goes with it. In this case, Maharana Udai Singh met a hermit when hunting and the hermit blessed the king, asking the ruler to build a palace on the spot where they met, and also asked that it be well-defended. The king did as he was asked. In 1568, a Mughal emperor captured Chittor, and so Udai Singh moved the capital to the site of his home, and this became the city of Udaipur.
Today, this beautiful area is dominated by lakes, palaces, and offers many places to stay, including Udaipur five star hotels. A quick, half-day tour of the area may help you find your bearings. In that amount of time, you can take in the City Palace, the Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandir, the Jagdish Temple, Fatehsagar Lake, Pratap Smarak, Sahelion-ki-Bari, the Sajjan Niwas Garden, the Museum and the Zoo. That sounds like a lot for a half day, but remember, this is more like an exploratory excursion:
The City Palace towers over the lake on a hill, a combination of pavilions, terraces, courtyards, corridors, and hanging gardens. You’ll enter through a triple arched gate, where the maharanas were weighed in gold, and that amount of gold was given to the local population. There’s also the Suraj Gokhada here, the balcony of the sun, where the Suryavanshi Maharanas of Mewar would address the people in troubled times. The Jagdish Temple is a great sample of Indo Aryan art, and is considered to be one of the biggest temples of Udaipur. The Bharatiya Lok Kala Museum is a place to see Indian folk arts; the Maharana Pratap Memorial is a bronze statue of the king on his horse, Chetak — a very popular sight. Fateh Sagar is a lake with Nehru Park, a garden island which may be reached by boat. In Sahelion-ki-Bari, you will find the Garden of the Maidens, a place with pools and fountains and exotic plants. In Sajjan Garh, you’ll find the Monsoon Palace, which Sajjan Singh built to watch the monsoon clouds; later used for hunting. You’ll also see Gulab Bagh, a rose garden, spectacular in form, created by Maharana Sajjan Singh. The garden features a library, too, of ancient manuscripts.
With luck, a drive by these areas will provide you with a better understanding of the area and where you’ll want to concentrate your time for the rest of your trip.
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