India Travel Guide

See famous cities & top major highlights

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Alwar

Maharaja Pratap Singh founded Alwar in 1771 A.D. It is situated about 161 km from Delhi. This city is famous for palaces, dense forest, rapids and museum. Alwar is about 200 km from Delhi and 107 Km from Jaipur.

How to Reach Alwar

By Road : Alwar is well connected to different cities around it by road. Alwar is linked with Bharatpur, Deeg and Jaipur by road.

By Rail : An exciting and exotic train 'Fairy Queen', which is the oldest running steam locomotive in the world, runs from Delhi to Alwar. It takes about 3-4 hours to reach Alwar. There also other trains traveling from Delhi to Alwar.

By Air : Nearest airports are in Jaipur and Delhi.

Places of Tourist Interest

The City Palace - The City Palace, separated from the base of the hill by a picturesque tank called Sagar, consists of a group of buildings in various styles. Behind the palace lies the old temple tank and the cenotaph of Raja Bakhtawar Singh and Rani Moosi, who performed sati. It is a superb example of early 19th-century Rajput architecture, with its graceful brown Karauli sandstone structure and its nine white marble canopies.

The museum - It is lodged in a portion of Rajmahal (City palace) with a collection of about 700 manuscripts and painting. Manuscripts are written in Hindi, Persian and Sanskrit. Here we can see the illustrated scroll of the Bhagwat Geeta, which is 80 feet long, and an illuminated copy of the Quran in Arabic with Persian translation in red letters. The armory has old swords of Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjehan, Nadirshah and Aurangzeb.

Moti Doongri - All that now exists in Moti Doongri ("Pearl Hill") is a massive fortified wall, with a flat empty space at the crest of the hill. The elegant hundred roomed palace that stood here was dynamited out of existence by Maharaja Jai Singh.

Bala Qila - Situated on a craggy hill that dominates the town is Bala Qila. Built on the foundation of an ancient mud fort constructed in AD 928 by the Nikumbh Rajputs, it was successively occupied by the warring Mughals Pathans and Jats before finally being captured by Raja Pratap Singh in 1775.

Vijay Mandir - Vijay Mandir is a sprawling, palace with 105 rooms and a beautifully laid out garden that lies 6 miles outside Alwar

Sarisksa forest - This is a famous tiger reserve that covers an area of 800 sq km in total, with a core area of approximately 500 sq km. This sanctuary is surrounded by a ring of hills. This forest was converted into a wild life reserve in 1955.

Sariska Palace - Set inside the Sariska Tiger Reserve this was actually Maharaja Jai Singh"s hunting lodge, where he would bring the guests whom he particularly wanted to impress.

Kankwari Fort - Within Sariska Tiger Reserve, 12 miles from the gate, lies Kankwari fort. It is a superb example of a vanadurg, or jungle-fort.

Siliserh - On route to Sariska 13 km from Alwar, this lake is spread over four square miles and Maharaja Bane Singh built this lake and a Palace in 1845 A.D. The Palace is open for tourists.

Pandu Pole - Pandu Pole is 18 km from Sariska and is noted for its historic importance and natural beauty. It is said that Pandavas spent one year of their hiding (Agyatwas) in the caves of this mountain.

Neelkanth Mahadev - Raja Ajaipal built this temple. This place is 70 km from Alwar surrounded by mountains. A 16 feet high statue of Digambar Jain Tirthankar can be seen in the ruins of a Jain temple about one km from the temple of Neelkanth.