Tearing ourselves away from the stunning Umaid Bhawan Hotel we visited the Mehrangarh Fort built 410 feet above the Blue City. An imposing presence, it was started in 1459 by Rao Jodha (hence the town name Jodhpur) and is one of the largest forts in India. Most of what we see today dates from 1638 to 1678 and it still bears the scars of numerous attempts to take it but all failed. It now contains many of the treasures of the Maharajas from the earliest time to the Mughal period and right up to  British rule.

Amongst the items on display are paintings from the Marwar period, Palanquins, armour through the ages, a turban gallery and the remains of the Indian emperor Akbar, regarded as one of the greatest Mughals of all time.

In the evening we once again left the hotel for a roof top meal under the walls of the floodlit fort.