Hawa Mahal

Centre of Attraction	Hawa Mahal
City, Country	Jaipur, India
Nearest Airport	Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi Sanganer Airport - Jaipur (domestic flights)

Description

Hawa Mahal

Built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh,

Hawa Mahal

is the most stunning sight in the city of Jaipur. The palace, part of a huge complex, overlooks one of Jaipur's main streets and was originally constructed to offer women of the court a vantage point, behind stone-carved screens, from which to watch the activities taking place in the bazaar and the surrounding streets.

Hawa Mahal Jaipur

five-story, pyramid-shaped structure is made up of small casements, each with tiny windows and arched roofs with hanging cornices, exquisitely modeled and carved. Its facade makes Hawa Mahal look more like a screen than a palace. Its top three stories are just a single room thick but at the base are two courtyards. It is a fifty-foot high thin shield, less than a foot in thickness, but has over 900 niches and a mass of semi-octagonal bays, carved sandstone grills, finials and domes, which give this palace its unique facade.

Hawa Mahal

or

Hawa Mahal Jaipur

is also popular as "

Palace of Winds

" and it is designed by Lal Chand Usta and this name of the palace is given because

Hawa Mahal

has about 953 windows through which wind or (hawa) flows and keep the palace cool.