Udaipur

Built up a hill beside the lake, the palace runs 244 metres long. Inside, a courtyard carries peacocks made from set glass pieces.

Toward dusk a boat circles the two palaces standing out on the water. The lake stays still, so each palace shows doubled in it.

Thirty two steps climb to the entrance of this seventeenth century temple. Elephants and dancers are carved in bands across the outer wall.

A garden made for the maids who came with a queen holds many fountains. No pump drives them, only the difference in water level.

Built on a hilltop to watch the rain clouds approach. The inside is bare, though the roof shows the lakes and the city together.

A lakeside mansion serves as a museum and stages folk performance in the evening. A dance with ten water pots balanced on the head closes it.

Brushes of squirrel hair put very small work onto paper or marble. Lines that need a lens to see are drawn by hand.

1444 marble pillars stand inside and no two carry the same carving. Two hours by car reaches it and before noon only worshippers may enter.

The rampart runs 36 kilometres and ranks among the longest in the country. It winds along the ridge and reads like a snake from above.

Traditional houses from several states were built here at full size. Craftsmen work inside them making pottery and cloth to sell.

This reservoir north of Pichola is named for Maharana Fateh Singh, who rebuilt its flood-broken dam in the late 1800s. Its island carries a garden and a solar observatory. At dusk corn and chai carts line the embankment as locals stroll in the breeze.

Stone steps along Pichola's western bank, facing the full length of the City Palace across the water. Mornings bring residents washing clothes and bathing; at sundown photographers take over the steps. Many wait on until the palace lights switch on.

The Mewar royal family's old cars, parked in the garage of a palace hotel. Among them is the Rolls-Royce that appeared in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. An antique fuel pump and carriages fill one corner of the garage.

A cable car rises from a park on Pichola's eastern side to the Karni Mata temple atop Machla Magra hill. The ride lasts minutes, and the summit takes in the lake, the palaces and the Aravalli hills. Queues peak at sunset, so get tickets early.

On a hill above Fateh Sagar, a bronze of Mewar's hero Maharana Pratap rides his horse Chetak. Gardens and a small gallery climb the hillside, topped by a view of the island garden out on the lake.

A Shiva temple 22km north of Udaipur, whose deity the Mewar rulers have long treated as the true king, ruling only as his regents. Its four-faced lingam is carved in black stone. Photography is banned, so phones go into the locker at the gate.

A pilgrim town around Shrinathji, the child Krishna. The curtain opens only at fixed times, and crowds surge each time. Painters behind the temple make pichwai, cloth hung behind the deity. A giant Shiva statue went up on a hill above town in 2022.

The old Mewar capital, a day trip east, where the whole hilltop is fortress. Vijay Stambh, a 9-storey 15th-century victory tower, is carved with deities across its outer faces. Distances inside the walls are long, so most hire an autorickshaw.

The pass where Maharana Pratap met the Mughal army in 1576, named for soil as yellow as turmeric. A museum retells the battle, and a memorial honours his horse Chetak. Villages around it grow roses and sell rose water and rose preserve.

A folk art museum opened in 1952, collecting Rajasthani puppets, masks and instruments. A small theatre stages kathputli string-puppet shows. A counter by the exit sells puppets to take home.

A reservoir made in 1685 when a Mewar ruler dammed a river, ranked among the largest artificial lakes in Asia. Marble elephants and small pavilions line the dam. Far bigger than the city lakes and much emptier, it suits a half-day outing.

Two Vishnu temples from around the 10th century in Nagda village near Eklingji; the name means mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Pillars and ceilings are carved so densely that the stone looks like lace. Most people combine them with Eklingji.

Hundreds of cremation memorials of the Mewar royals crowd together east of the centre. Their white domes overlap so tightly that from a rise they look like a small village. Next door, a museum displays pottery left by settlers from before the Common Era.