Hill Forts of Rajasthan

Look for these

• 01

  The Vijay Stambh at Chittorgarh

  A nine-storey tower Rana Kumbha built in the 1440s to mark a victory over the Sultan of Malwa, and every square inch of the outside is carved with gods, court scenes, musicians and weapons. You can climb the narrow internal stair. Nearby is the older Kirti Stambh, a twelfth-century Jain tower. Chittorgarh is enormous — roughly 700 acres on a plateau — so hire an auto inside rather than trying to walk it.

• 02

  Walking Kumbhalgarh's wall

  The perimeter runs about 36 kilometres and in places the rampart is broad enough that guides will tell you eight horses could ride abreast on it. Walk a stretch at the top and look at how it follows every contour rather than cutting across. Inside are more than three hundred temples, some of them older than the fort. This was the birthplace of Maharana Pratap, and the fort was never taken by direct assault.

• 03

  Chittorgarh's water, and its stories

  The Gaumukh reservoir is fed by a spring in the rock face, and it is the reason a fort on a dry plateau could hold out. Chittorgarh is also where the jauhar tradition is most heavily memorialised — the mass self-immolation of the women when a siege was lost, three times in its history. Guides tell these stories with a great deal of embellishment; the fort itself is the reliable part.

• 04

  Gagron, the fort with no foundations on land

  Water on three sides where the Ahu meets the Kali Sindh, and a moat cut through solid rock on the fourth. It is the least visited of the six and the most quietly astonishing, especially just after the monsoon when the rivers are high. Jhalawar is a long way from anywhere; treat it as a detour worth making rather than something you slot in.

• 05

  Ranthambore, fort and tiger reserve together

  The fort is inside the national park, which means you buy a separate ticket and share the road with safari jeeps. The climb up through the gates is steep and full of langurs. From the top you look down on the lakes where the tigers actually are. Very few visitors to Ranthambore go up to the fort at all, which is their loss.

• 06

  Jaisalmer, which is not a museum

  Around four thousand people live inside the walls — houses, hotels, temples, shops, plumbing. That is what makes it extraordinary and also what threatens it: the sandstone was never built to take modern water loads, and drainage is slowly undermining the bastions. Visit, but consider staying outside the fort rather than in it. Locals and conservationists both make that request.