Desert sky

A beautiful sunset over Phoenix.  I don't get tired of them.

Skyline

Here's a little bit of Michigan skyline. Very different from the mega-metropolis of Delhi.

The pink city from above

The city of Jaipur is in a valley, so there are a number of places to go up into the hills and look down on it, and I had plenty of those opportunities.

There it is:  Swargasuli tower in the center of the old city.
From seven stories up, I had a pretty good view, but Nahargarh fort is even higher, and that's where I took this picture from.

Jaipur is called the "Pink City".  What do you think, after seeing the city from all these different angles, does it look like a pink city?

Pink or not, it sure has a lot to see.

Swargasuli tower

The only other time I was in Jaipur, my friend and I walked around looking for a tower that was supposed to have an excellent view of the city.
We never found it.
Instead, we found a shoe shop where she bought shoes, and a shopkeeper who let us climb up to see the view from his roof when he couldn't tell us where any tower was located.

This time, I found it.

And yes, what a view.

Built in 1749 to commemorate a military victory, it's the tallest structure on Jaipur's skyline at seven stories high..
It's name, Swargasuli Tower, means "tower to heaven" or "the heaven piercing minaret".  It's also known as Isar Lat--and maybe that's why I couldn't find it the first time:  I was calling it by the wrong name?

Ishwari Singh's victory over his enemies is what instigated the building of the tower, yet there were other rumors as to why he wanted to build it.  One being that from this vantage point, he could watch the neighbor's daughter when she was out in the garden.
It seems he just wasn't very serious about fighting battles, and when they attacked again, he chose to kill himself rather than fight the army that might be too strong for him. 

That's too bad, because what he did like more than anything else was art and poetry.  In fact, he excelled at the art of making designs and figures in paper cutting--his favorite hobby.
Sigh.
The world will never know what great art it has missed with his early demise.

But the tower remains.  And from this lookout far above the city, the view is still pretty spectacular.

Isar Lat (Swargasuli) Tower, Jaipur City View in India

Revolving restaurant

It was a lovely day for a view of Delhi after the rains had cleared the sky.
Delhi--sprawling, giant city that it is--goes as far as the eye can see.
And the Parikrama (meaning "to go around") restaurant gave us a perfect panorama as it revolved on the rooftop of one of the higher buildings in the skyline.

As I ate roasted eggplant curry and biriyani with fresh lime soda, I recognized some famous spots:

The minarets of Jama Masjid towering above office and apartment buildings.

The golden domes of Bangla Sahib Gurudwara.

And what a view of just how expansive the Connaught Circle is.

It looks pretty cool at night as well.
I went back another evening with some friends to see how it looks 240 feet over the ground after sunset.

Skylines are cool.