36 reasons why we love Rajasthan

Rajasthan has always been our favourite tourism destination since forever, in terms of its beauty, culture and heritage, fashion and not to mention, food! We have jotted down a few 36 points on why Rajasthan has acquired a priority position in our travel bucket list.

1. Rajasthan literally means ‘the Land of the Kings’. (‘Raja’ means Kings and ‘Sthan’ means Land)
2. The state of Rajasthan is beautifully colour coordinated as each popular city is made in different colours – Jaipur in pink, Jaisalmer in yellow, Udaipur in white, Jodhpur in blue and Jhalawar in purple.
3. The oldest mountain range in India ‘Aravalli’ is present in Rajasthan.
4. The Thar desert of Rajasthan is the biggest desert in India. It is also called the Great Indian Desert. It is the world’s 17^th largest desert and 9^th largest subtropical desert.
5. Luni, the only saline river in India flows through Thar desert.
6. Out of UNESCO’s many world heritage sites, three sites namely Jantar Mantar of Jaipur, Keoladeo National Park and the Hill Forts of Rajasthan which are Chittor fort, Kumbhalgarh fort, Ranthambore fort, Gagron fort, Amer fort and Jaisalmer fort.
7. There is a town in Rajasthan which is abandoned for over many many years. It was abandoned overnight in the 19^th century. Kuldhara in the Jaisalmer district is thus must-visiting .
8. One of the world’s most luxurious train, the Palace on Wheels, operates in Rajasthan.
9. If you really like horror stories, you should visit the Bandhavgarh/Bhangarh fort of Rajasthan which is said to be one of the world’s most haunted places.
10. The wall of the Kumbhal fort in the Aravalli range extends to 38 km which makes it the world’s second largest wall complex after the Great Wall of China.
11. The only Lord Brahma temple in the world is located in Pushkar.
12. The Pushkar Camel Fair is organised every year in the month of October/November. It is one of the largest livestock fairs in India.
13. The KarniMata temple in Deshnoke is a pilgrimage site where the shrine is home to around 25,000 black rats which are considered sacred.
14. The historical monument Hawa Mahal of Jaipur is known for its magnificent architecture – it is made of pink sandstone and is includes almost 953 windows.
15. India’s first nuclear test was conducted in 1974 in Pokhran, a city in the district of Jaisalmer. The famous Bollywood movie ‘Pokhran’ depicts the story of this operation.
16. The Mehrangarh fort of Jodhpur has been featured in many Hollywood and Bollywood movies like The Jungle Book (1994), Awarapan (2007) and the Dark Knight Rises (2012).
17. The Loha Pol gate of the Mehrangarh fort has 15 small handprints of the widows of Maharaja Man Singh. It is said that the queens had made these handprints before they immolated themselves on Maharaja’s funeral pyre.
18. Jantar Mantar of Jaipur is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has a collection of 19 architectural astronomical instruments including the world’s largest stone sundial.
19. Mandawa town of the Jhunjhunu district is home to a number of amazing havelis made by the merchants. Today, these havelis are made into open art galleries with beautiful themed paintings.
20. There are a lot of wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in Rajasthan, one of which is Ranthambore National Park, where you can spot the Royal Bengal Tiger. The Desert National Park near Barmer and Jaisalmer is one of the largest wildlife parks in India.
21. The heritage hotels in Rajasthan were once the palaces of the Maharajas. Some popular heritage hotels are Umaid Bhawan Jodhpur, Taj Lake Palace Udaipur, Rambagh Palace Jaipur, Shiv Niwas Palace Udaipur, Gorbandh Palace Jaisalmer.
22. The Keoladeo National Park, also known as ‘Paradise of Birds’ has more than 370 species of birds. It is located in Bharatpur.
23. The white marble used in bulding the Taj Mahal was sourced from Makarna of Nagaur district of Rajasthan.
24. Shilpgram museum is a village which has been converted into an art museum to promote the traditional art and culture of India.
25. For shopaholics, Rajasthan is the best place to shop miniature Mughal paintings, blue pottery, traditional handicraft and jewellery including gold, silver and kundan meena.
26. Rajasthan is known as the ‘King of Spices’ and we can find aromatic spices in Clock Tower Market in Jodhpur and Tea and Spice Market in Udaipur.
27. One important part of Rajasthani culture is that women wear ghoonghat (veil) and men always have long moustaches and wear big pagadis (turbans).
28. The biggest ever turban which is 151 inch long is located in Bagore ki Haveli in Udaipur.
29. Two palaces of Rajasthan – Jal Mahal Jaipur and Taj Lake Palace Udaipur are located in the centre of a lake and are known for the exotic craftsmanship of the bygone era.
30. Lake Pichola is the most beautiful tourist site in Udaipur which looks natural but is actually artificially built in the year 1362 AD.
31. Rajasthani food is unarguably rich in taste and it includes Daal Baati Churma, Phini, Ghewar, Gujia, Bhujia and Papad.
32. India’s most popular pilgrimage and religious sites like Khatushyam Temple Sikar, Chishti Dargah Ajmer, Brahma Temple Pushkar, Shri Nakoda Parshwanath Temple Barmer and Dilwara Temple Mount Abu are all located in Rajasthan.
33. The traditional art of Rajasthan includes block printing which can be relished at Anokhi Museum of block printing in Jaipur.
34. Nagaur hosts the Nagaur Cattle Fair every year in the month of January. This fair is all about beautifully decorate animals, folk dance, music and much more and happens to be India’s largest cattle fair.
35. Today, Jaisalmer fort in the only inhabited fort in the world as a large number of people are still living in the fort.
36. Jaipur is the first planned city of India in the pre-independence era, It was designed by the Bengali architect Purohit Vidyadhar Bhattacharya under the reign of Sawai Mann Singh II.