On our way to the famous Amber Palace we stopped for a photo op at Jaipur's Hawa Mahal ("Palace of Winds"). It stands upright as the entrance to the City Palace. An important landmark in the city, Hawa Mahal is an epitome of the Rajputana architecture. It is built in the shape of Lord Krishna’s crown. The structure is essentially a high screen pink sandstone wall built so the women of the royal household could observe street festivals while unseen from the outside -- they had to obey strict "purdah" (face cover). Its unique five-storey exterior is akin to the honeycomb of a beehive with its 953 small windows decorated with intricate latticework. It is named Palace of the Winds because the lattice also allows cool air from the Venturi effect (doctor breeze) through the intricate pattern, air conditioning the whole area during the high temperatures in summers.

 Entrance to Hawa Mahal is through a side door which leads to a spacious courtyard surrounded by two-storey buildings on three sides. Of the five storeys of the Mahal, the top three storeys have the thickness of a single room while the bottom storeys have courtyards. The interior of the Hawa Mahal is stark and plain with passages and pillars reaching to the top storey. The building does not have stairs to reach the upper floors; the storeys are connected by slopes. From Hawa Mahal, there is an excellent view of the city. Hawa Mahal is the tallest building in the world without a foundation. Hawa Mahal has five storeys and it is still standing upright because it is curved and leaning at an angle of 87 degrees.