Jodhpur

Rajasthan

Mehrangarh Fort stands on a sandstone outcrop 120 metres above the city, its walls said to be impregnable — cannonball marks on the gates suggest a few disagreed. Below it, the old city's houses are washed in a particular shade of blue, originally used by Brahmin families and now simply the colour of Jodhpur.

From the ramparts at dusk, the Blue City resolves into something closer to a tide than a townscape. Inside the fort, palace apartments still carry the carved sandstone jali screens that once let air move through without letting the sun follow it.