Hawa Mahal
Hawa Mahal, or literally the Palace of Winds is one of the main attractions of the Indian city of Jaipur, which is known for the interesting definition of "pink city of India." Hawa Mahal is impressive for its architecture and was built from multiple small bastions which was strictly ordered and arranged and the lush building is riched with harmonious façades. It is believed that Hawa Mahal is intended as a women's Palace.
Perhaps it is built to facilitate the women of the royal family - to be able to watch from their rooms the everyday life and processions of the city. The Palace of Winds was built at a time when nobility women were completely hidden from the eyes of the world and their mothers enjoyed great respect and protection of the surrounding world.
Hawa Mahal was fully completed in 1799, and was erected on the orders of Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. The designer of the draft of Hawa Mahal is Lal Chand Usta, who designed the palace in the form of the crown of the Hindu god Krishna.
Today, the Palace of Winds is located on the main square in the heart of the business center of Jaipur. It is an integral part of the city palace complex, which extends to the so-called Zenana room or the place where the rooms are all of harem.
It is built entirely of red and pink sandstone cliffs and the Palace of Winds - Hawa Mahal is the most impressive. If seen in the early morning at sunrise you will see the suns rays highlight the specific beauty of the facade.
The palace is of five floors but the last three floors of Hawa Mahal create the impression of a unified structure, while the first and second floor have patios in front of them as part of the elongated structure. If you look at the central facade of the Palace of the Winds, it may remind you of a striated appearance of the honeycomb, with its small individual cells.
After about a 50 years period of desert, Hawa Mahal was renovated in 2005. The restoration of the palace had absorbed about one million dollars. Today, visitors to Hawa Mahal or palace of winds can enter it through the so called, Imperial Gate which leads to a large patio, where the Archaeological Museum and the Indian city is located.
