_-_img_01.jpg/1920px-East_facade_Hawa_Mahal_Jaipur_from_ground_level_(July_2022)_-_img_01.jpg)
Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
The palace
Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh built the Hawa Mahal in 1799
The Hawa Mahal was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, grandson of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur. It was designed by Lal Chand Ustad and built in red and pink sandstone.
The windows
The small windows let royal ladies watch the street unseen
The Hawa Mahal takes its name from its 953 windows, called jharokhas, set in a honeycomb pattern. The lattice was meant to let royal ladies observe daily life and festivals in the street below without being seen.
953small windows, called jharokhas, in a honeycomb pattern
The back
What looks like the front of the palace is the back
Many people see the Hawa Mahal from the street and think it is the front of the palace, but it is the back. The rear is plain, with chambers built with pillars and corridors with minimal ornamentation.
The air
The lattice also let cool air pass through in summer
The lattice let cool air from the Venturi effect pass through, making the area more pleasant in summer. The five-storey palace rises to about 50 feet, and the top three floors are one room wide.
Day 1, morning
Next is City Palace, Jaipur.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Hawa Mahal, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.