Chittorgarh is a town of about 120,000 in southern Rajasthan, and above it stands THE LARGEST FORT IN INDIA BY AREA: roughly 700 acres on a hill 180 metres high, walled for 13 kilometres. It is one of the six Hill Forts of Rajasthan inscribed by UNESCO, and it was the capital of Mewar before Udaipur.
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What Is Here
THE FORT IS A RUINED CITY RATHER THAN A BUILDING, AND THAT IS THE THING TO UNDERSTAND BEFORE YOU GO UP. It is not a palace you tour in an hour. Seven gates climb the hill, and inside the walls are palaces, temples, reservoirs and towers spread over a plateau with a road running through it. People still live inside. You need a vehicle, a cycle or several hours of walking, and ideally a guide.
The Vijay Stambh, the Tower of Victory, is the finest thing in it: nine storeys built by Rana Kumbha in the 1440s, carved on every surface, with a narrow internal stair you can climb.
The temples are the second image here, and the Kumbha Shyam and Meera temples are the ones to find. The Kirti Stambh, a 12th century Jain tower, is older than the Victory Tower and less visited.
RANI PADMINI'S PALACE SITS ON A WATER TANK and is the subject of the story every guide tells: that Alauddin Khalji was permitted only to see her reflection in a mirror. The history and the legend are tangled, and the palace you see is a later rebuilding.
CHITTORGARH'S HISTORY IS A HISTORY OF THREE SIEGES AND THREE JAUHARS, in 1303, 1535 and 1568, in which the women of the fort are recorded as having committed mass self-immolation as the walls fell, and the men rode out to die. It is told here with pride as a story of honour, and a visitor should expect that framing and be ready for it. The Gaumukh reservoir and the Mahasati terrace are the places associated with it.
The town below is a working Rajasthani town with little for visitors, which is why most people come for the day from Udaipur.
When to Go
October to March. November to February is best.
Winter days are warm and dry, nights cool, and the light on the sandstone at either end of the day is the reason to stay overnight rather than day-tripping.
April to June is above 40C and the fort is exposed stone with little shade: a serious and avoidable mistake.
July to September brings the monsoon, which turns the plateau green and fills the reservoirs, and is genuinely beautiful between showers.
Getting There
By train, Chittaurgarh Junction is well connected, about two hours from Udaipur and seven from Delhi, with services to Jaipur and Ahmedabad.
By road, roughly two hours from Udaipur and five from Jaipur.
By air, Udaipur is the nearest airport at two hours.
Most visitors come from Udaipur for the day. Kumbhalgarh, the other great Mewar fort, is about three hours away and the two together make a good two day loop.
Is Chittorgarh Safe for Women?
Chittorgarh is a quiet provincial town and the fort is an open archaeological site. The FCDO does publish advised-against areas for India, and being precise about them matters more than a general warning. It advises against all travel to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, except air travel to and movement within the city of Jammu, and against all travel within 10km of the India-Pakistan border, where the Wagah-Attari crossing is closed. It advises against all but essential travel to the state of Manipur, including Imphal. None of that is anywhere near this destination, and it is worth knowing which parts of a very large country the warnings actually describe.
The FCDO advises against all travel within 10km of the India-Pakistan border, and the clause that matters for a desert trip is the next one: the border is UNMARKED IN SOME AREAS of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Approaching it away from an official crossing point could be dangerous and, where it is unmarked, could mean entering Pakistan illegally. The Wagah-Attari crossing is closed to tourist transit except for the daily retreat ceremony, so anyone planning to cross overland between the two countries needs a different plan entirely. A dune excursion sold locally will not be measuring its distance from an international boundary for you.
THE FORT IS THE HAZARD AND IT IS HEAT AND GROUND RATHER THAN ANYTHING ELSE. Seven hundred acres of exposed sandstone with very little shade, long distances between the monuments, and loose stone and broken steps throughout. In the hot months this is where people get into trouble.
The Vijay Stambh stair is narrow, steep, dark and two-way, which is uncomfortable if you dislike confined spaces.
The reservoirs have no barriers and the edges are stone slabs sloping into deep water.
Monkeys are present in numbers and are bold around food. Do not carry visible snacks and do not feed them.
Dress covered, both for the temples inside the fort and for the town.
The Chittorgarh Packing List
A full day on exposed sandstone, with cool nights and a serious hot season.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right first layer on a fort day for reasons that are practical rather than stylistic: it keeps the sun off your arms and shoulders across 700 acres with almost no shade, it stays comfortable when you are damp with sweat rather than going cold and clammy, and it satisfies the covered-shoulders expectation at every temple inside the walls without a separate garment. From December to February add a heavyweight merino base layer for the evenings.
A long sleeve sun hoodie if you are coming in the hot months, and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket during the monsoon.
Waterproof hiking shoes with Darn Tough merino socks: the fort is loose stone, broken steps and uneven slabs, and sandals are the usual mistake.
A wide brim sun hat, which on this plateau is equipment.
Not linked and worth packing: A LARGE SCARF for temples and for dust; A LITRE AND A HALF OF WATER AT MINIMUM, carried up, since the stalls are clustered near the gates rather than spread through the site; A TORCH for the tower stairs; HAND SANITISER; and CASH for the entry, the guide and the auto-rickshaw. Cards work in hotels.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Chittorgarh
Emergency numbers: 112 is the single national emergency number and works from any phone. 100 reaches police directly, 108 ambulance and 101 fire. 1091 is the national women's helpline and 1098 the child helpline.
The fort is 700 acres on a hill, not a building: you need a vehicle, a cycle or several hours, and there is almost no shade anywhere on the plateau. Carry at least a litre and a half of water up with you, because the stalls cluster near the gates. THE VIJAY STAMBH STAIR IS NARROW, STEEP, DARK AND TWO-WAY. THE RESERVOIRS HAVE NO BARRIERS and their edges are stone slabs sloping into deep water. MONKEYS ARE BOLD AROUND FOOD: carry nothing visible and do not feed them. April to June exceeds 40C and this is where visitors get into real trouble. Dress covered for the temples inside the walls. EXPECT THE JAUHAR HISTORY TO BE TOLD WITH PRIDE as a story of honour; it is the local framing and it will come up.
US State Department travel advisory: the India advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: the district hospital in Chittorgarh handles routine and emergency care, with Udaipur's larger hospitals about two hours away for anything serious. Dial 108 for an ambulance. Healthcare in the large Indian cities is genuinely good in the private hospitals and variable in the public ones, and the private sector expects payment or a direct insurance guarantee up front. Carry insurance with a high medical limit and repatriation cover, and carry proof of it. The commonest problem by far is not dramatic: it is stomach upset, so drink sealed bottled or filtered water, and be more careful with raw salad and cut fruit than with hot food cooked in front of you.
Official health authority: the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. covers the Rajasthan state health service
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in New Delhi.
Official tourism authority: Incredible India, the Ministry of Tourism's official site. publishes the fort entry arrangements, the licensed guide rates and the sound and light show timings
Takeaways
It is a ruined city, not a palace. Allow most of a day and take transport.
The Vijay Stambh is the best thing in it. Climb it.
No shade on 700 acres. Water and a hat before anything else.
Stay a night for the light, or combine it with Kumbhalgarh.
Solo women safety assessment: Chittorgarh is comfortable for a woman travelling alone and considerably less wearing than Rajasthan's headline cities, because the visitor numbers are mostly Indian day-trippers from Udaipur rather than an international tourist economy. The fort is open, busy in daylight and policed by the Archaeological Survey; the town below is a normal provincial place where dressing covered and keeping interactions brief is the whole of the social technique required. 112 IS THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY NUMBER, 100 reaches police, 108 an ambulance and 1091 the national women's helpline, and Udaipur's hospitals are two hours away for anything the district hospital cannot handle. THE FCDO'S INDIAN PROHIBITIONS ARE NOWHERE NEAR: Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, the Naxalite states to the east, and the 10km India-Pakistan border strip, which is several hundred kilometres north west of southern Rajasthan. THE PRACTICAL DANGER IS THE FORT ITSELF, and it is heat and footing rather than people. Seven hundred acres of exposed sandstone at 180 metres with very little shade, long gaps between monuments, loose stone and broken steps throughout, and water stalls that cluster near the gates instead of being spread across the plateau: in April, May or June that combination puts people in genuine difficulty, and the answer is to come between October and March, start early, take an auto-rickshaw or a cycle rather than walking it all, and carry more water than feels necessary. THE UNFENCED RESERVOIRS are the other physical thing, with slabs sloping straight into deep water and no railings at all, and the monkeys are bold enough that visible food is a mistake. ONE THING TO BE READY FOR THAT IS NOT A SAFETY MATTER: the three jauhars, in which the women of this fort are recorded as having burned themselves to death as the walls fell, are told here as a story of honour and are told to every visitor. It is a local framing of a mass death of women, and it is worth deciding in advance how you want to hear it.
Reading On
Chittorgarh is Mewar and Udaipur is its successor capital. The Udaipur packing list covers the lake city two hours south west, and the Jaipur packing list and Pushkar packing list the east of the state. North and west the Jodhpur packing list, Jaisalmer packing list and Bikaner packing list cover the desert, and the Bharatpur packing list the wetland in the far east. South, the Ahmedabad packing list and Diu packing list cover Gujarat, with the Mumbai packing list further on. For the country the India travel guide for women and the India packing list carry the transport, the dress expectations and the practical material in full. For why wool suits a long hot day on stone, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
