Science and Architecture

After spending almost 3 hours at the Amber Fort, we took a quick walk down to the surrounding city past a small Hindu temple and to a local step well. This well was larger than the one we saw in Delhi and resembled more of the traditional square type. Loved the symmetry of it all. We drove by the Jal Mahal or Palace on the Lake before lunch. This palace was given over to a private company who wanted to develop the abandoned property into a tourist attraction but politics have stalled the project. It would have been an upscale restaurant only reachable by boat. Too bad, we would have definitely gone there.

Following lunch we stopped by two artisan shops - Emerald Palace (gems and jewelry obviously) and Ganesh Textiles (traditional block printing). We ended up buying a matching pair of custom earrings and bracelet for Tina to be shipped directly home. At the block printing shop, we watched two artisans pressing color onto a patterned piece of cloth. This company uses natural dyes, such as sugar cane, spinach, and tumeric, on natural fibers like cotton and silk. It looked so precise but tedious, very neat though!

Now it was time for some science fun at Jantar Mantar, an astrological observatory built by Jai Singh II. There were several different types of sun dials and instruments that measured the constellations and zodiacs. They were all calibrated to that specific location in Jaipur. The sundials included the historic Hindustan time delineations, which were shorter than the current minutes and seconds (and were called something else). They were also a very different style than we were used to - convex semi-circular arches with an angled "ramp" in the center. As the sun travels across the sky, the shadow of the ramp moved along the arches to tell the time. The world's largest masonry sundial is located there and is accurate up to 2 seconds! We took many pictures with it of course.

Another interesting time fact that we learned was the reason behind India's single time zone and the use of local vs national times. They wanted a single time zone for the national train system so that people wouldn't get confused converting between zones or by arriving "before" the departure time. India's time zone is also based on noon at the center of the country and is a half hour different from the next ones over, +5:30 GMT.

Astrology is big in India too. Birth horoscopes and zodiac signs can tell a lot about someone or can drive their future. There were instruments that charted the locations of the constellations and subdivided the sky into 12 parts of 30 degrees for each zodiac. They could measure where we were in that zodiac house.

Our final stop on the tour was Hawa Mahal, the Wind Palace. This building consists of 5 floors and over 900 screened windows overlooking the main road thru the Pink City. The royal women were not allowed in public so this gave them a private view of the ongoings of the city. The window screens themselves were intricately carved with floral and geometric shapes. The towers offered lovely views of the whole city and at the Amber Valley in the distance. Since it was sunset, the walls glowed with golden light. We ran across the street and upstairs to a cafe to take pictures of the palace with the sun setting behind it. It was truly beautiful!

On our way back to the hotel, we drove by the Albert Hall Museum and saw a live broadcast interview with a state politicians. Indians are invited to attend and ask them questions in a public space. Kinda neat and different compared to the American style of prepared interviews and debates.Read more