Ginger Without Borders

On our return trip to Jaipur, we took a route along the Man Sagar Lake that borders Jaipur. In the center of the lake is a Rajput palace that was originally built in 1699, the Jal Mahal or “Water Palace.” The building and the lake were later renovated and significantly enlarged when Jai Singh II…

The Muslim Mughals were not the only Indian royalty with extreme wealth and an interest in building monumental architecture. Our second day in Jaipur began with a visit to the fortress built by the Hindu Rajput Amer dynasty during their alliance with the Mughal Emperors: the Amber Fort (also known as the Amer Fort), another…

Once we left Fatepur Sikri, we had a 4.5 hour drive to the third point in the so-called Golden Triangle of North India, the “pink city” of Jaipur. Jaipur is part of what was once part of the Mewar Kingdom (now India’s modern state of Rajasthan), once one of the most powerful Hindu Rajput Dynasties…

We did not drive directly to Jaipur once we left Agra. About 22 miles west of Agra lies the abandoned remains of Fatehupur Sikri, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In its full glory in 1585, English traveler Ralph Fitch called it one of India’s “two very great cities, either of them much greater than London.”…

Agra is built on the flat plains near the desert about 140 miles southeast of Delhi on the banks of the Yamuna River. It is an ancient city that is mentioned in the legends of Krishna. It was reestablished as a city during the Lodhi Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate in 1504. Lodhi made it…