Amber Fort

Amber Fort is a hilltop fort-palace of honey-coloured sandstone and marble in Amer, about 11 km north of Jaipur, Rajasthan, begun by Raja Man Singh I in 1592. Amber Fort was the seat of the Kachhwaha rulers until they moved to the planned city of Jaipur in 1727, and its mix of Rajput and Mughal design reflects the close alliance between the Kachhwahas and the Mughal court.

The fort grew over more than a century. Mirza Raja Jai Singh I added the Ganesh Pol gateway and the mirrored Sheesh Mahal in the 17th century, and the palace was later linked by a tunnel to Jaigarh Fort on the ridge above, which guarded the treasury and offered an escape route under siege. In 2013 Amber Fort became one of the six forts listed by UNESCO as the Hill Forts of Rajasthan. Elephant rides up the ramp are the traditional approach and a contested one, as animal welfare groups have campaigned against them for years; jeeps and a walking path cover the same route.

What to see

• Suraj Pol and the Jaleb Chowk, the great courtyard where armies once paraded
• The Diwan-i-Aam, the hall of public audience with its double row of columns
• Ganesh Pol, the painted gateway into the private palace
• The Sheesh Mahal, whose ceilings of mirror mosaic glitter under a single flame
• Sukh Niwas, cooled by water channels, and the zenana quarters of the queens
• Maota Lake below the walls, with the Kesar Kyari saffron garden terraces

What to wear

Amber Fort is not a place of worship, so no dress rules apply beyond modest, comfortable clothing, though the small Shila Devi temple inside asks you to remove shoes. Wear flat shoes with grip for the steep ramp and polished stone floors, and a hat, sunscreen and water from March to June, when Jaipur passes 40°C. Winter mornings are cool enough for a light jacket. Guides in the fort often wear the Rajasthani safa, a long bright turban, while women in the villages around Amer wear lehenga-choli with an odhni veil.

Local food to try

Jaipur cooking is built for the desert: dal baati churma (baked wheat balls with lentils and sweet crumbled wheat), ker sangri (desert beans and berries), gatte ki sabzi and laal maas, the fiery mutton curry of Rajput hunters. Amer village below the fort has simple thali restaurants, and the old city is 20 minutes away for pyaaz kachori and ghevar. Most Jaipur food is vegetarian by default; halal meat is easiest to find around the walled city's Muslim quarters near Ramganj.

Good to know

• Best from October to March; arrive at opening to beat the heat and the tour buses
• Open daily, about 8am to 5:30pm, with an evening light and sound show
• Entry fee, higher for foreign visitors; composite tickets include other Jaipur monuments
• Allow two to three hours, more if you add Jaigarh
• About 11 km north of Jaipur's walled city, 30 minutes by car
• Photography is allowed; drones are not

Nearby places

On the drive back to the city you pass the floating Jal Mahal and the royal cenotaphs of Gaitore Ki Chhatriyan, and the ridge-top Nahargarh Fort overlooks the same valley.