10 Feb 2014

Jaipur- City of palaces


A drummer welcoming us into the hotel 
     

A warm welcome into the hotel lobby

Repin at Jantat Mantar, an astronomical laboratory
A warm welcome was given to guests at the Golden Palace hotel - a boy was beating a drum and puppets as well as a person playing some traditional instrument greeted us we stepped out of the van. After a journey of 5+ hours, this was indeed welcoming. Checking in into the hotel was also done in quick succession and we were soon ushered into our cool spacious room. Freshening up quickly and after our afternoon prayers we then walked to the cafe for a quick lunch, which was capatti , dal, chicken in some herb sauce, vegetables, rice and another kind of curry. 

 Next on our intenary was a visit to a Mogul palace as well as an observatory designed by one of the Kings of Rajasthan. It was called Jantar Mantar and had really accurate timepieces all made of stone and marble.  Just imagine it was made in mid 14th century - and a person with some knowledge of astronomy and mathematics could calculate exactly when the new moon would appear or know when was the next lunar eclipse and where!  There were also the 12 symbols of the zodiac - and you can see me here standing g next to mine - Libra ! 
Looking at the exhibits in the astronomical lab of an Indian king 
Me pointing at my star symbol, Libra


3 comments:

♥●• İzdihër •●♥ said...

wow :).

The Bookworm said...

Wow Kat, nice photos. Jantar Mantar looks like an amazing thing to see!

Kat said...

It's really amazing Naida. Imagine thinking of an observatory in the 15th century and being able to calculate exact times of lunar cycles, solar eclipses, studying the stars at a time when the West was still looking for a route to China!