Visit the Joyful City of Jodhpur in the State of Rajasthan, India

The State of Rajasthan in India is full of historical forts, palaces, and the most impressive museums. Jodhpur is one such ancient and historical city of Rajasthan. Jodhpur was the capital of Marwad state in the old times. This historical city was established by king Jodha in the year 1459. Jodhpur has become a very famous and well known commercial center of India recently. It is very famous for the animals, camels, salt production, and wooden handicrafts. I have visited Jodhpur couple of times in my life and hence am very familiar with the site seeing places of Jodhpur.

Jodhpur is well connected by air from Delhi, Mumbai, Udaipur, and Jaipur as there are daily regular flights available from all these cities. It is connected by rail from Jaipur. The State Transport buses are also available from all the major cities of Rajasthan for Jodhpur. The fort of Jodhpur was built even before the city was built. This famous fort is known as Maherangarh fort. The town of Jodhpur was built all around this fort later on. The fort has seven gates and once these gates are closed, the city is totally isolated from all the external enemies. This fort is 125 feet tall and is built in 5 miles length. There is a water reservoir all around it so as to give the protection to the city from all the directions. This fort appears covered from all the directions from outside, but in fact, it has many open installations in it. There are many palaces like Motimahal, flowers palace, Shishmahal, and the palace of Queens.

All These palaces are really worth seeing in details by taking a complete round through them. The silehkhana, doulatkhana, are the two other establishments that also must not be missed. These places were used to store the weapons and the food grains in earlier times. The windows of all the palaces have beautiful designs engraved on them. There are old musical instruments, wall paintings, ancient collection of the coins, and the weapons in these palaces that are really worth seeing. There are seven canons installed above all the seven gates of the fort. These canons can fire up to 3 miles range. Though, they have not been used since last many years. The famous Jashwant Thad is the next place to be seen. There are umbrellas of all the kings of Jodhpur here. These are made of white Italian marble and were built in the year 1899. The umbrella of the famous king Jashwantsinh is also here. These umbrellas are located very near to the main fort. The government approved guide services must be used while visiting these historical places to have detailed historical information on this famous fort and palaces. The guide charges are around Rs.200 ($5) per trip of the fort and the palaces.

The Umed Bhavan palace is the next vital sites seeing spot here. This palace was built by King Umedsinh in twentieth century as a scarcity relief work to help people of Jodhpur during the major scarcity due to no rains. It took around 16 years to complete this palace. This palace is now converted in to lavish 5 star hotel and most of the foreign tourists make sure to stay here for at least one night to have feel of the royal palace. The rates are around Rs.6000 ($150) per day for a nice double room. The ancient historical town of Mandor is only 5 miles away from Jodhpur. There are beautiful statues of eight famous Hindu lords engraved from one single solid rock here. All these statues are in beautiful colors and are well taken care of. The Pokhran is around 20 miles away from Jodhpur. This was the place where India made the first nuclear explosion. It has now become a tourist spot.

There are many good hotels like Hotel Banival Palace, Hotel Bal Samand Palace, City Palace, Rajputana Palace, quality Inn, Palace Bilara, Hotel Motimahal International, and Hotel Suraj Nivas. All these hotels are having three star amenities and charge around Rs.2400 ($60) to Rs.3600 ($90) per day for a nice double room. I have stayed at Hotel Bilara Palace, which is very conveniently located in the center of the city. The maximum stay of around 2 to 3 days can be sufficient to cover all the places of tourist's interest. The authentic Rajasthani food is really nice here at Jodhpur and can be easily available at all the big restaurants of the city.

If you are interested in the history of Rajasthan and in visiting historical forts and the palaces, Jodhpur is a place for you. Make sure to cover it during your next visit to India.