Hawa Mahal
Poet king Sawai Pratap Singh built this palace of winds. This is the most easily recalled landmarks of Jaipur and is also its icon. Located in the city Palace it is best viewed from the outside for the palace is really a facade. This five-storey building overlooking the busy bazaar street is a stunning example of Rajput architecture and artistry with its pink delicately honeycombed 953 sandstone windows known as 'jharokhas'.

It was originally built for the ladies of the royal household to watch everyday life and processions in the city from their veiled comfort. Most people come here to get a view of the facade but they can also climb to the top for a wonderful view from the latticed windows. There is also a small archaeological museum there. Entry to foreigners/citizen is Rs 30/10.

The Hawa Mahal, or the "Palace of Wind" built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799 A.D. is characterised by elaborate and fanciful architecture. The broad pyramidical facade comprises five storeys of semi octagonal overhanging windows with perforated screens, domes and spires.

Jantar Mantar
Across the road from the palaces is the famous JANTAR MANTAR one of the five observatories in India . Built by Sawai Jai Singh, this is one of the largest and the best preserved. A passionate hobby of the king in the field of Astronomy, numerology, insighted him to execute this observatory and with the help of skilled labourers, they managed to create a collection of complex astronomical instruments chiselled out of stone and most of which continues to provide accurate information to this day.

The most striking instrument is the Brihat Samrat yantra Sundial, an imposing yellow edifice to the far right of the observatory complex which has a 27m high gnomon arm set at an angle of 27degree.The shadow this casts moves up to 4m in an hour, and aids in the calculation of local and meridian pass time and various attributes of the heavenly bodies, including declination the angular distance of a heavenly body from the celestial equator and altitude. This highlight of the observatory has made it a centre of attraction for the tourist visiting Jaipur.

Jantar Mantar is the most famous and elaborate observatory of its time. It was constructed in the year 1724 A.D. by Sawai Jai Singh II, even before the city of Jaipur was built, and has been described as the most surrealistic and logical landscape instone. It was built to measure the local time, the sun's declination, altitude, the declination of stars, planets and to determine eclipses.

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Monuments in Jaipur, Jaipur Tourism Reservation Form