{"id":429,"date":"2016-08-07T12:40:53","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T07:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jatinchhabra.com\/?p=429"},"modified":"2018-11-13T12:53:06","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T07:23:06","slug":"a-rainy-road-trip-to-see-neemrana-and-narnaul-baolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jatinchhabra.com\/a-rainy-road-trip-to-see-neemrana-and-narnaul-baolis\/","title":{"rendered":"A rainy road trip to see Neemrana and Narnaul Baoli’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

For me, 25 to 30th of every month, is reserved for my road trips. And in July I planned to visit Bundi, the city of Step wells,\u00a0but the God of Rain “Indra” has been graceful on us as it has been raining all July.<\/p>\n

And finally in the 1st week of August, clouds gave me a break, and I hired a cab to visit Neemrana & Narnual at the borders of both Rajasthan and Haryana.<\/p>\n

FYI, roads in Rajasthan are better than the ones in Haryana (keeping national highways apart)<\/p>\n

Neemrana Boali, Rajasthan<\/h1>\n
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\"Jatin

Me at Neemrana Baoli<\/p><\/div>\n

This masterpiece is the third baoli or baori (Stepwell) which I have seen in the last two\u00a0months, with\u00a0Abhaneri Chand Baori<\/a>\u00a0being the first and Panna Meena ka Kund<\/a> in Amer being second.<\/p>\n

Neemrana Baoli is in the royal city of Neemrana which is famous for its 13th century Fort that\u00a0is now a luxurious hotel, operated by Neemrana Group.<\/p>\n

Fun fact –<\/strong> You can also enjoy aerial zip line adventures at Neemrana Fort, which will cost you some nice amount of money.<\/p>\n

History lesson<\/h1>\n
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\"Ground

Ground Floor of Neemrana Baoli<\/p><\/div>\n

Coming back to the Neemrana Step well, this is a 16th century (1760) Marvel, with nine stories inside the ground, not the sky.<\/p>\n

There is no name mentioned anywhere on the site which tell us that who build this baoli, but after talking with the locals, I got some glimpse of this baoli history.<\/p>\n

The Maharaja of Neemrana developed this step well in the 1760s to restore water, and as I can clearly see the rooms type structure on both sides, so this Baoli must have been an AC like Inn (Hotel)<\/strong> as the temperature in these step wells is 5 degrees lower than the weather outside.<\/p>\n

Time to travel\u00a0inside\u00a0this Baoli<\/h1>\n

There isn’t any entry ticket, so I just parked the car on the main road and went inside. The path, which is on the entry level is like the ground floor of the baoli, and from here I could\u00a0clearly\u00a0saw\u00a0the\u00a06th floor. Check the below pics to see yourself.<\/p>\n

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\"View

View of 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"View

View of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th floor<\/p><\/div>\n

Then I walked up to the other side of this baoli and climbed a floor above.<\/p>\n

The thing is that if we consider the entry path as the ground floor than there are eight stories under the ground and one above.<\/p>\n

The below picture is the view from the top storey. Have a look.<\/p>\n

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\"View

View from the top of Neemrana Baoli<\/p><\/div>\n

After taking some pics from this floor, I walked deeper to get the glimpse of all the floors of the Boali and here is what I saw.<\/p>\n

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\"Neemrana

Neemrana Baoli 1st floor<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"View

View from 1st floor<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"View

View from 1st floor of Neemrana Baoli<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"View

View from 3rd floor<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Neemrana

View from 6th floor<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Last

Last floor<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Main

Main stairs of Neemrana Baoli from seventh floor<\/p><\/div>\n

A sense of Neemrana Baoli from the last stair<\/h1>\n
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\"A

A sense of Neemrana Baoli from the last stair<\/p><\/div>\n

And this concludes my trip to Neemrana. I didn’t visit Neemrana Fort as they have this crazy entry fee of INR 1600 per person to explore the fort and besides I had to visit Narnaul Boali which is 40 km west from here.<\/p>\n

Narnaul Baoli<\/h1>\n

I came to know about Narnual Baoli from a list of India step-wells at Wikipedia but after traveling an hour, I reached Narnaul City and was surprised to see that no one no nothing about the\u00a0Narnaul Baoli.<\/p>\n

Because\u00a0there\u00a0isn’t any baoli here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But pictures don’t lie and after spending an hour asking locals, I heard about a village name Mukundpura (or Mukendpura)<\/strong>, which is 9-10 km from here. As I came close to this village, one thing was sure that there is a baoli here.<\/p>\n

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\"Mukundpura

Mukundpura Baoli<\/p><\/div>\n

Mukendpura is 10 km from the Narnual city, and Yes, there is an ancient baoli here, but it’s not Narnaul Baoli, its Mukendpura\u00a0Baoli<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Mukendpura Baoli<\/h1>\n

That’s the real name, and I am also trying to correct the name from Narnaul to Mukendpura Baoli in Google Map, Tripadvisor, and Wikipedia.<\/p>\n

Mukendpura Baoli isn’t a fancy spot as the condition isn’t great and but the good thing is that the local village panchayat does clean the step well once in a year.<\/p>\n

Here are some pics which I collected for the blog and for you.<\/p>\n

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\"Mukundpura

Mukundpura Baoli entrance<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Mukundpura

Mukundpura Baoli stairs<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Mukundpura

Mukundpura Baoli inside view<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Mukundpura

Mukundpura Baoli floors (3)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Mukundpura

Mukundpura locals<\/p><\/div>\n

My regards to the guy (ex-sarpanch) in the middle who gave me a lift on the muddy road.<\/p>\n

And with this, I have officially visited four ancient step wells of India, and now 39 left to go.<\/p>\n

How to reach Neemrana & Mukendpura (Narnaul)<\/h1>\n

Neemrana is at the center of Delhi-Jaipur Highway and thus you won’t find it difficult to reach, but Mukundpura is a bit tough, as there isn’t any GPS location available of this village.<\/p>\n

So to reach Mukendpura, you need to take a right cut before Behror on Delhi-Jaipur Highway (NH 48), drive straight 28 km towards Narnaul City. From here, you will have to ask the route for Mukundpura village\u00a0which is a 8 km bumpy road, west to Narnaul city.<\/p>\n

But if you have that travel addiction, no road is bumpy for you. So be ready as in some places, you won’t even find road. :)

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