The White City
Udaipur
White palaces and whitewashed houses stand around lakes in the Aravalli hills of southern Rajasthan.
Why Udaipur is marble white
Udaipur was founded in 1559 as the capital of the Mewar kingdom. It is called the White City for its marble palaces and the whitewashed houses that climb from the water. The City Palace, built and extended over about four centuries, runs along the east bank of Lake Pichola in pale granite and marble. The Lake Palace, finished in the 1740s as a summer residence, seems to float on the lake in white. Marble is quarried in the region, and white limewash reflects the summer sun. Inside, the palaces are far from plain: coloured glass, mirror work and peacock mosaics fill the courtyards. At dusk the white walls turn gold, then pink.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Udaipur
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Udaipur" on Wikipedia. If you know Udaipur and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
๐ฎ๐ณ The Blue CityJodhpurOld-city houses washed in blue crowd the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, on the edge of the Thar Desert.
๐ฎ๐ณ The Pink CityJaipurThe walled city wears a dusty terracotta pink, first painted on for a royal visit in 1876 and kept ever since.
๐ฎ๐ณ The Golden CityJaisalmerA fort and town built of yellow sandstone that glows like honey at sunset, deep in the Thar Desert.
๐ฎ๐ณ City of saffron and lightVaranasiSaffron robes, marigold garlands and oil lamps colour the river steps of one of the oldest living cities.
๐ฎ๐ณ Town of Holi coloursVrindavanFor Holi the temple town of Krishna's childhood fills with clouds of pink, yellow and green powder.
๐ฎ๐ณ Birthplace of Krishna, home of HoliMathuraKrishna's birthplace celebrates Holi for more than a week, with processions, music and coloured powder.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Jodhpur In: Lavpatel2008, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Jaipur In: Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Jaisalmer In: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, source
- Varanasi In: Marcin Biaลek, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Vrindavan In: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, source
- Mathura In: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, source