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City Palace

The City Palace is in the central area of the Pink City, and occupies about one-seventh of the city's area.  It comprises of several adjoining buildings and courtyards.  Some areas are still private to the Royal family or used as government offices, but others are open to the public and also contain museums of various royal collections.  I think that we only saw a small portion of the whole area.

Passing though the first courtyard of the you move to the inner courtyard through the Rajendra Pol (Gate).  The two elephants flanking the gate are each carved from a single piece of marble.

Once through the gate you see the Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience).  Within the hall are set two giant urns listed in the Guiness Book of Records as the world's largest silver objects.  They were used by Sawai Madho Singh for his 1902 trip to England to carry pure Ganga water from the Himalaya.  He was attending the coronation of King Edward VII and  did not trust English water.  The vessels are 5 feet 3 inches tall and can hold 8,142 litres each.

This is the Riddhi-Siddhi Pol which leads from the courtyard of the Diwan-i-Khas to the Pritam Chowk (Courtyard of the Beloved).  Within this courtyard there are four highly decorated doorways each representing a season of the year.

 

 

 

 

The Peacock gate represents winter.  The courtyard is overlooked by the Chandra Mahal (Moon Palace)  This is a seven storeyed building that contained the royal apartments for the king's harem of 108 wives. 

 

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