Jaipur, Rajasthan:

water tank at Galtaji

One week after the festival of Gangaur, I used a lazy sunday to explore some sights of Jaipur together with a friend.

First we visited Galtaji, an ancient Hindu pilgrimage site with a number of temples and water tanks. Most of the beautiful buildings in a narrow gorge through the hills at the eastern boundary of Jaipur were constructed in the 18th century. The Surya Temple stands at the highest point and enables wonderful views across the old town of Jaipur. Further eastwards follows the famous Hanuman Temple also known as Monkey Temple due to the large number of Rhesus Macaques living there. Many pilgrims and locals come to take a bath in the water tanks filled from a natural spring in the mountains.

on the way to Galtaji

gate to the city

Surya Temple

view along Tripolia Bazaar

view towards Galtaji

at the Monkey Temple

macaques have lunch

cooling off in the water tank

lowermost water tank at Galtaji

a contemplating macaque

Galtaji

In the afternoon, we took an autorickshaw to Nahargarh Fort. This beautiful palace, constructed in 1734 on the hills north of Jaipur, also offers great views of the city. Popular belief states that the fort was named after a prince called Nahar Singh whose spirit haunted the place after his death and could only be pacified by building a temple within the palace grounds.

view across Jaipur from Nahargarh Fort

old town of Jaipur

City Palace and Jantar Mantar

view south towards Birla Mandir

view across Jaipur

sunset at Nahargarh Fort

Nahargarh Fort

Nahargarh Fort

on the roof of Nahargarh Fort

Jaipur

Jaipur

With afternoon temperatures in Jaipur reaching regularly above 40°C since mid-April, sightseeing becomes quite exhausting. Nevertheless, I still explored quite a bit in the following weeks… as you will see in the next post!