Explore Jodhpur

Mehrangarh Fort dominates Jodhpur the way no other fort dominates any Indian city. It rises 122 metres above the old town on a sheer rock outcrop, visible from every street in the Blue City below-a mass of stone battlements, ornate marble jali screens, and sandstone palaces built and improved by successive Rathore rulers from 1459 to the 20th century. Unlike Amber or Jaisalmer, Mehrangarh has never been successfully besieged. The fort is the reason Jodhpur's old city spreads the way it does-dense, blue-washed, arranged in the social geography of castes and crafts that the Maharajas administered from above. The blue colour of the old city's buildings is not, as often claimed, simply a Brahmin tradition of painting houses blue. The original indigo dye was used as a termite repellent-indigo mixed into lime plaster creates a compound that termites will not eat through. Over 400 years, this practical decision became the visual identity of the city. The blue is most concentrated in the lanes immediately below Mehrangarh, where the original Brahmin and merchant quarters were built. Umaid Bhawan Palace, on Chittar Hill above the old city, was the last major palace built in India before Independence-constructed from 1929 to 1943 at the direction of Maharaja Umaid Singh to provide employment during a severe drought. Designed by Henry Lanchester in a fusion of Western art deco and traditional Rajput elements, the palace has 347 rooms and is still partly the residence of the Jodhpur Royal Family. The Taj Hotels wing (64 rooms) is the most prestigious address in Rajasthan by scale. RAAS Jodhpur, a contemporary luxury boutique hotel built within a restored haveli at the foot of Mehrangarh, is the alternative for travellers who want to be inside the old city rather than above it. The Bishnoi community, 25 kilometres south of Jodhpur, are an ecological tradition that pre-dates modern environmentalism by 500 years. The Bishnoi faith (founded 1485 by Jambhoji) prohibits the harming of living things-trees, animals, humans. The community's relationship with the blackbuck antelope (which the state government of Rajasthan later designated a protected species in part because of Bishnoi intervention) has been the most documented. A Bishnoi village safari-a private jeep drive through the settlements, with lunch at a household, observing opium preparation (a traditional community greeting), blackbuck herds grazing within the village boundary, and craft-making processes-is one of the rarest cultural experiences in India. Alike's Bishnoi excursion is the complimentary experience.