Alwar
— — a fort hill, a lake, and the old road from Delhi.
Not only on a wall.
“A walled city in the northeast corner of Rajasthan, where the Aravalli ridge folds in on itself and the Bala Quila fort climbs the high ground above town. The City Palace sits at the foot of the hill, with its tank, its cenotaph, and the old gardens still in place. Sariska Tiger Reserve begins a short drive south. About 160 kilometres from Delhi, far enough that the city falls away and the dry hill country begins.
Alwar, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Alwar is the administrative seat of Alwar district in northeast Rajasthan, in the Aravalli hill country about 160 kilometres south of Delhi and 150 kilometres north of Jaipur. The town's population is around 340,000. Founded as a princely state in 1770 by Pratap Singh of the Kachwaha Rajputs, Alwar grew up around the Bala Quila fortress on the hill above it. The surrounding district is semi-arid scrub forest, transitioning between the Thar to the west and the Yamuna plains to the east, with the Sariska Tiger Reserve covering much of the southern district.
Bala Quila, the fort that gives the city its skyline, stands roughly 300 metres above the town on the Aravalli ridge. Its walls run for about five kilometres, with six gates and a string of bastions along the ridge. The fort predates the princely state and was held in turn by the Mughals, the Jats of Bharatpur, and the Kachwaha dynasty. Below the hill stands the City Palace, built in 1793 by Maharaja Bakhtawar Singh, with the Sagar tank and the Moosi Maharani ki Chhatri cenotaph on its eastern flank. Both palace and chhatri use the warm yellow Rajasthani sandstone characteristic of the region.
Alwar is reached from Delhi in about three hours by road on NH 48, or by frequent trains from Delhi Cantonment and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations. Most travellers stop a night before continuing to Sariska, about 35 kilometres south, where tiger safaris run morning and afternoon from October through June. The cooler season from November through February is most comfortable; summer afternoons climb past forty degrees Celsius. The Alwar Government Museum, in the City Palace complex, holds Mughal-era manuscripts, miniature paintings, and the royal armoury collection.