Amber Fort - part 1

Amber Fort (the b is silent, so Ah-MARE) is around 11 km from Jaipur, and is one of the principal tourist attractions in the Jaipur area (per Wikipedia). It's the kind of place you walk around with a goofy broad grin on your face, as your wonderment and delight increases with each turn. And the reason this is "Part 1" is that we took over 150 photographs.

You can google for some of the history, but basically it dates back to the late sixteenth century. Together with the Jaigarh Fort, to which Amber Fort is connected, they helped protect the former capital Amer until 1727 when the ruler, Jai Singh II, relocated the region's capital to Jaipur (lit. "Jai's town"). I'll talk more about Jaipur later.

Amber Fort, from the road leading to Amer, with Maota Lake in the foreground

Jaigarh Fort, from the entry to Amber Fort

From this site, I found an overview map, and some excellent panoramic images. There are a few errors , and a few things have changed since this sketch was made (eg garden beds in the Jaleb Chowk) but it's the only plan I managed to find. I'll cross-reference the sections below with this picture.

And here's a screen dump from Google Maps that I stuck some labels on (using Paint.NET)

Google Maps view of Amber Fort

From the inside looking out from the eastern side of the fort

Showing elephant ramps (with elephants) leading to Suraj Pol (item 1 above), overlooking Maota Lake and Amer, looking NE

Panning south from above - Amer, Maota Lake, Saffron Garden

Kesar Kyari (saffron garden), in the not quite full Maota Lake, looking east.

First courtyard - Jaleb Chowk (item 2 on sketch)
This spacious courtyard had a parade of elephants with howdahs and tourists circling it. A big green drum and some other instrument I can't recall sounded out across the space from above the entry to the courtyard. (Jaleb = soldiers, Chowk = courtyard, or in this case parade ground, or assemby area). The Suraj Pol is marked as item 1 above).

Elephant parade, showing the Suraj Pol (lit. Sun Gate), facing east

Facing west to the Chand Pol (lit. Moon Gate), through which we entered the courtyard

Overview of the Jaleb Chowk from the Singh Pol

You walk up a very impressive set of steps and to the Singh Pol, or Lion's Gate, to get to the next courtyard.

Steps to go from first courtyard to second, though the Singh Pol.

At the Singh Pol: Brijraj (our guide) in sunnies and 'stache; El with pink bag; Ky with blue t-shirt

Our guide didn't point out the Sila Devi temple (item 3 on map), or if he did, I missed it because I was distracted by what was before me. The temple is actually to the right of the Singh Pol in the photo above, I believe, but I can't be sure.

Continued in Part 2