Old City (Pink City), Jaipur

The City Palace is a massive complex of courtyards, gardens and buildings. The palace is a blend of Mughal and Rajasthani architecture, the outer wall was built by Jai Singh but many of the additions are much more recent - some from the early 20th C.Within the Mubarak Mahal or Welcome Palace is a Textile and Costume Gallery with textile, clothes and musical instruments on display. The palace was a reception center for visiting dignitaries.The Sileh Khana is located behind Mubarak Mahal. This is the armory with a collection of ceremonial weapons such as diamond and gold pistols, two-bladed daggers, helmets and steel mace. The welcome sign is spelled out with daggers and the goodbye sign in pistols.Rajendra Pol is one of the entrances, it is flanked by marble elephants that were carved from a single block of marble and leads visitors to the Diwan-i-Khan (Hall of Private Audiences). Exhibits feature illustrated manuscripts, miniature copies of Hindu scriptures and two urns that are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest silver items in the world. They were created to carry sacred water from the Ganges River when Madho Singh II traveled to London in 1902.Pritam Nawas Chowk (Court of the Bbeloved), also known as the Peacock Courtyard, has four stunningly beautiful painted doorways that represent the four seasons and a bas-relief of the peacock gate.The former royal family still lives in part of the palace, the Chandra Mahal.

The Central Museum features an eclectic collection of items such as tribal ware, decorative art, costumes, musical instruments, miniature portraits, sculptures, paintings, natural history specimens and miniature terracotta figures.Albert Hall was modeled after the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture. The building was constructed during the reign of Maharaja Ram Singh and was intended to be the town hall but his successor Madho Singh converted the building to an art museum.The Central Museum is located in the Ramnivas Gardens.

The Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds as it is also called, was built in 1799. It is five stories tall but only the depth of one room, it was used by the ladies of the palace to watch the outside world without being seen.There are 953 lattice-screened windows and a constant breeze blows through the building, which is where the name, Palace of the Winds was derived from.The main attraction of the Hawa Mahal is the facade, which is pink sandstone with a honeycomb affect pattern.