Sheesh Mahal Amber

SHEESH MAHAL (THE MIRROR PALACE)

The majestic fort has the entrance from the Ganesh Pol, from Ganesh Pol you enter into a courtyard named Jaleb Chowk, from Jaleb Chowk leads a huge pathway and a huge gathering hall named as Diwaan-e-aam (Place for common gathering). From Diwaan-e-aam you move forward to the third platform of the fort where King, his Queen and his helpers stay. On the Left hand side of the fort is the Jai Mandir, or commonly known as The Sheesh Mahal(Mirror Palace).

THE MIRROR PALACE

Sheesh Mahal is majestic and an astounding piece of architectural work in the fort, this palace is based on the forty pillars and the pillars are beautifully constructed and built with thousand pieces of mirrors. The Palace was built for the King for he use to shift from Sukh Niwas to Sheesh Mahal in winter season, the mirrors use to reflect light in the place and use to keep the rooms warm. And in the afternoon the King use to bask in the sun, in his lush Mughal styled gardens.

The beauty of the Mirror palace can be easily seen in the darkness, a single candle lights up the whole place like if thousands of candles kindled. The intricacy of the mirror work justifies the beauty of the palace; the popular song “Jab pyaar kiya toh darna kya” from the movie “Mughal-e-Azam” directed by Dilip Kumar was shot here only. The beauty and the art of the palace was well shot and seen on the screen, the mirrors reflect different colors of beautiful lights which look like thousands of colored gems.

The today’s beautiful and new face of the palace is because of the reconstruction during the 1970’s-80, but obviously the original beauty cannot be compared or rebuilt, when the palace was built many precious stones were used to decorate the walls and the roof. From the roof of the palace a panoramic view of the Maota lake