Udaipur

Udaipur is built around water in a desert state — five lakes connected by channels, with whitewashed palaces reflected in their surfaces — and the city has never quite recovered from the visual fact of itself.

The City Palace at Udaipur, expanded over three centuries by successive Mewar rulers until the complex covered three acres, is the most grandiose structure on the shores of Lake Pichola. The Lake Palace — now a hotel, the most dramatically positioned hotel in Rajasthan — was built in 1746 on an island in the lake as a summer retreat and appears, from the shore, to float. The proximity of these two buildings — the main palace watching over the island palace — tells the story of Mewar royal life more concisely than any history book.

The old city around the lake accumulates details that the photographs miss: the narrow lanes of the Hathi Pol neighbourhood, where craftsmen produce the miniature paintings that have been a Mewar tradition since the 16th century; the ghats where women wash clothes at dawn; the Jagdish temple built in 1651 and still the most active religious site in the city, its steps always busy with the commerce of devotion. Udaipur rewards the visitor who walks rather than rides, who explores the backstreets of the old city rather than remaining lakeside.

Places to Visit in Udaipur

• City Palace, Udaipur
• Lake Pichola
• Jagdish Temple
• Saheliyon Ki Bari
• Monsoon Palace

Things to Do in Udaipur

• Boat ride on Lake Pichola
• Sunset at a rooftop lake-view restaurant
• City Palace museum tour
• Old City lane walks