From Udaipur to Jodhpur - through the mountains stopping at Kumbhalgarh Fortress

Traveling by car from Udaipur to Jodhpur gives you the opportunity to stop along the way and look at some fantastic architecture.  The Kumbhalgarh Fortress is high in the hills.  It was built in the 15th century and used by rulers as a place of safety when they were under attack.

The fortress and temples are surrounded by an enormous wall.  This wall is the second biggest wall in the world.  The only bigger wall is the Great Wall of China!

Here you can see the rounded towers and the slits at the top behind which guards could hide.

The wall stretches for as far as you can see.  Behind the walls villages, temples and the palace are safe places.

Rulers lived in the palace, which was situated high up the hill. You could see in every direction from this palace, so it would be hard for enemies to sneak up on you.

The dry mountainous terrain outside of the walls are wildlife refuges, with monkeys, tigers, leopards and other types of wildlife.

This massive door is inside the fortress walls and leads into the palace.  Large spikes stick out of the doors starting six feet up.  At first we weren't sure why they would put the spikes so high.  It didn't seem like this would provide much protection.  Then we remembered that Mughal armies used elephants in battle.  We think that the spikes would make it hard for the elephants to be used to ram the doors.  An elephant's head would hit just at the level of the spikes.

The terrain leading up to the walls makes it hard to even get to the wall.

Inside the palace, there were places to sleep and eat, and shrines for worship.

Outside the palace, within the fortress walls, were temples.