Stepwells & Water Architecture
Heritage
Baolis, vavs and tanks — the buildings India put underground to reach the water table.
7 places
Ahmedabad
Adalaj Stepwell
An exquisitely carved five-storey stepwell on the city's outskirts.
Chittorgarh Fort
Gaumukh Kund
A deep sacred water reservoir carved into the cliff edge, fed continuously by a spring shaped naturally like a cow's mouth.
Bundi
Raniji-ki-Baori (Queens Stepwell)
Built in 1699 by Rani Nathavati Solanki, queen of Rao Raja Anirudh Singh, and about forty-six metres deep — a multi-storey stepwell with a place of worship on each level, carved brackets running down the sides, and a narrow four-pillared entrance under a high arched gate, with stone elephants facing each other in the corners. Bundi has dozens of stepwells and most are locked, dry or full of rubbish; this is the one kept open and maintained. Go in the morning, while the sun still reaches down the shaft — by afternoon the carving is in shadow and stops reading.
Patan
Rani ki Vav
A stepwell on the bank of the Saraswati at Patan, built in the eleventh century and attributed to Udayamati, queen of the Chaulukya king Bhima I. It silted over and was effectively lost until the 1940s, then excavated and restored by the Archaeological Survey of India in the 1980s — which is why the carving is as sharp as it is. Seven levels of stairs descend to the water, each lined with sculptural panels of Hindu deities: it was built as an inverted temple, a shrine you go down into rather than up. UNESCO listed it in 2014, and it is on the ₹100 note.
Abhaneri, Rajasthan
Chand Baori
Gujarat
Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen's Stepwell) at Patan
Delhi
Khari Baoli
Asia's largest wholesale spice market, trading since the 17th century, on the road that runs west off the end of Chandni Chowk beside the Fatehpuri Masjid, a short walk from the Red Fort. What is sold here is spices, nuts, herbs, rice and tea, in wholesale quantity, to people buying for a shop rather than for dinner. That is what makes it worth an hour, and it is also why you should come early on a weekday. This is a working grocery market first and a stop on the Old Delhi heritage circuit second.
