Champaner-Pavagadh

Mahmud Begada took the hill fort of Pavagadh in 1484 and built a new capital, Champaner, at its foot, which functioned for about fifty years before the Mughal conquest and was then abandoned, leaving a whole city plan intact and unbuilt over. That is why it was inscribed by UNESCO in 2004: mosques, palaces, gateways, wells, granaries and water systems from a single short period. The Jami Masjid, with its carved minarets and a hundred and seventy-two pillars, shows how thoroughly Gujarati Hindu and Jain craft traditions were absorbed into Islamic building. The Kalika Mata temple on the hilltop remains an active pilgrimage site reached by ropeway.

What you actually see

• The Jami Masjid - carved minarets and a pillared hall in a Gujarati idiom.
• The abandoned city - a fifty-year capital left in its original plan.
• The Pavagadh fort - hill fortifications above the city.
• Kalika Mata temple - the active hilltop shrine reached by ropeway.

When to go

October to March; Gujarat summers are severe and the site is spread out. Navratri brings enormous pilgrim numbers to the hill temple. Mornings are quietest at the mosques.

Honest expectations

Monuments are scattered across a wide area and need a vehicle between them. The hill temple crowds heavily and the ropeway queues for hours on festival days. Interpretation is limited.

Nearby

Vadodara lies southwest; the Statue of Unity is south.