As I told you, Jaipur is known as the "Pink City" due to the fact that when the prince of Wales visited the city in 1876 the city was painted pink as a welcome. In India pink is known as the color of hospitality. Although the city is covered in "pink", I think it should be named after all of its amazing palaces and forts.
Historically Jaipur is a town of merchants, selling beautiful things such as jewelry with diamonds and other gems. That is part of the reason why this city's rulers were able to build such majestic palaces and forts, check out my pictures below. The gardens are also beautiful, and something the rulers took great pride in.
The founder of this city was Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. He was very interested in science, astronomy and math. It was his creative ideas that let this city grow and be so successful. In the pictures below you will see me standing in front of the largest sundial in India, this was one of the many educational tools the ruler built to educate and help people in his city.
In this town you will see people riding elephants and camels. You will also see the monkeys checking out the markets, once again seeing if they can grab anything.
Now it is on to Mumbai. Here I will meet my brother-in-law's extended family, see more historical sites and see the "Hollywood" of India, they call it Bollywood.
Stay tuned....
How does a sun dial work? Did you get to ride an elephant :)?
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I missed this comment. Great questions!
ReplyDeleteA sundial is what they used to use to tell time, before there were clocks. How it works is that it is built on a straight angle, and the actual "dial" (think the long hand on the clock) is built in the middle at a 90 degree angle. When the sun comes up in the east the "dial" casts a shadow, and based on the shadow you can tell what time it is. It is pretty amazing that ancient cultures were able to observe the natural things around them and use their understandings to tell time. Look at this link if you are interested in building your own sundial, http://www.sundials.co.uk/projects.htm.
No I did not get to ride an elephant, but I did get to ride in a cart that was pulled by a camel. That was pretty fun!