Jal Mahal: mystery of Indian “floating palace”

by Dan Bradford · October 27, 2017

Photo: By Firoze Edassery (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Not far from Jaipur city, the capital of Rajasthan state, stretches an amazingly beautiful valley. On its territory there’s a lake Man Sagar with luxurious palace that rises near one of the banks. It look like the palace has grown from the water and now floats above the lake surface.

The palace was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Amber. It was his summer residence where he could have a rest during hot summer days. Lots of birds lived in the valley, so Indian notables liked hunting there.

Photo: By Puja1984 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Kevin Jones/flickr (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Photo: pushark lakhera/flickr (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

It is curious, but there are no rooms in this mysterious palace! A small garden on the roof was a place for rest after successful bird hunting. Under the water level there are four flooded floors.

Photo: By Ankit Tripathi (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Brian Walter/flickr (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

It’s hard to find a palace that doesn’t have at least a single legend about is construction. Jal Mahal owns it as well. The legend says that the palace, built a long time ago, was supposed to be the place where the Maharajas could have a rest. But after a terrible drought began, starvation stuck local villages. As a result, a dam was built on the nearest river. Gradually, water from the river flooded the valley and the first four floors of the palace went under the water. The peasants started to take water from newly formed lake for their fields. The hunger drew back, but since that time the palace stands in the water of the lake.