Culture, heritage, history, architectural marvels, and an ancient charm: an enchanting fusion indeed. Ahmedabad, India’s first heritage city, also known as the “walled city” has it all. Dive right in!
Over two days, we toured Ahmedabad on foot and then in a Rickshaw: and it truly captured my heart.
We went on an early morning walking tour: from Mandir to Masjid!!!
We started in the Swaminarayan temple, and began walking with a 20 strong group and our guide. We visited 14 places, and throughout the tour, our guide was explaining the meaning, architecture, purpose, and heritage of the locations.
We explored the ‘pols’ of Ahmedabad. Pols are gated community areas with large, old houses and a common secured entrance. In ancient times, pols were the lifeline for people, and they seldom left the pol they lived in, since it provided them with all their needs.
All pols have ‘chabutros’ which are huge, tall minarets, built solely for birds to live and eat in! What a thoughtful intention!
Within the pols were many Hindu and Jain temples, with calming, peaceful ambiences that exerted an inexplicable pull on me.
The next place was my favourite: the Doshivada ni Pol. Our Guide explained that every pol had a secret passage disguised as a regular house door leading to another pol, just in case the people needed to escape from an outside attack.
Then we got to try and find the secret passage around us! But I didn’t find it. It was so well hidden! And it took us to a completely new place in a completely new pol!
Soon, we emerged out of the pols and walked the charming streets to a huge haveli, which had 60 rooms! From one angle, it had three floors, and form the other, it had four! What an architectural delight!
Right next to that was the picturesque Fernandez Bridge. And all around it were number of BOOKSTORES!!!! I was in love the place at once. Books, books, books, books, booooooks!!!
We walked under the bridge and arrived at Manek Chowk. It was a huge square, and exotic scents and sounds engaged my senses instantly. The smell of spicy masala, the honking of horns, the voices of people bargaining, the whiff of luscious jalebi next door, whew!
Manek Chowk was flanked by two haziros: the resting places of the king and queen of old Ahmedabad! And it was quite near to the Jama Masjid. Its pillars, pool, and archways truly depicted the dedication put into building it. Amazing!!!
The next morning, we went on a Rickshaw Tour, and it kicked off at Ahmedabad’s iconic Sidi Saiyad Jali. The morning went by in a whirl of the Bhadra Fort, with its ‘wishing candles’, the two Mangaldas havelis, which were my next bucket-list places to stay in, Ahmedabad’s fantastic gateways leading to the old ‘walled’ city, and so much more.
We even passed by the Old Stock Exchange, which was the second-oldest and second-largest stock exchange in the whole of India at one point of time!
My favourite part was the Dada Harir Stepwell, a 5-storey stepwell built outside the walled city for traders and travellers to rest and find water and shelter.
So much to explore in just one city.
Ahmedabad, you’re amazing!!!
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