Sat, Nov 7: Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is known as the Golden City for good reason.  Most of the buildings are made of a golden stone, giving everything a golden glow.  

The architecture is beautiful here with many very elaborate carvings in the stonework (windows, balconies, and latticework). 

Jaisalmer is in the Thar Desert (also called the Great Indian Desert).  Our first stop was a large manmade lake, Gadsisar Lake, that was originally constructed around 1400 AD to provide drinking water to the city.  In the lake were two lovely pavilions that were used by the local maharajas as a place to hang out to cool off.  One had a platform extension on it for ladies to dance on to entertain him.

We then headed to the Jaisalmer Fort, most of which was built in the mid-1600’s.  It has three rings of walls protecting the inner fort.  Nearly one quarter of the city’s 78,000 citizens live inside the fort walls. 

We took a walk through some of the neighborhoods in the fort... 

Turbans

and  stopped at two Jain temples.  Jainism is one of India’s oldest religions.  The Jains were business people and after the collapse of the silk roads most of the families moved to southern India.  But a few remain and maintain the beautiful temples.

We stopped for refreshments atop a hotel on their rooftop terrace that had sweeping views of the city.  It is a lovely city with few trees but beautiful vistas.  We both loved the city, with its narrow roads, interesting buildings, and colorful street scenes.  

We walked through the narrow streets and past more markets...

and found a cow around almost every corner.

Puppets

We eventually made it to a “Haveli” or mansion.  It is actually five mansions, constructed sided by side, that were built by a wealthy businessman for his five sons.  We had good views of the fort from the haveli’s rooftop terrace.

The tourists were hanging out near the haveli where you could rent full local costume for getting your picture taken.

Some of the buildings had interesting murals painted by the doors.  These were to commemorate the wedding of the homeowners.

We also stopped at a "government sanctioned" shop with many fabrics and fabric items. Some of the most beautiful pieces were supposedly made from the saris of the local royal ladies.  Those were particularly beautiful and very expensive. 

Then it was lunch and a return to the hotel for a rest before heading out to see the sunset over the city.  

While waiting for the sun to go down we had a good view of a nearby market and were even able to do a bit of people (and cow) watching.

We had a great view of the fort but didn’t get much action from the sun.  It just sank into the haze on the horizon…no orange light to light the fort.  We then stopped for dinner on the rooftop of a restaurant with more great views of the fort. 

Our guide indicated that the fort was illuminated and technically it was…a couple of reasonable spotlights that lit only a very small part of the wall.