The fort, from the gates to the summit
Who built it: Rana Kumbha of Mewar, in the mid-fifteenth century, with the main work dated to roughly 1443 to 1458 under his architect Mandan.
World Heritage: one of the six Hill Forts of Rajasthan inscribed by UNESCO in 2013.
- Built
- Roughly 1443 to 1458
- Built by
- Rana Kumbha, architect Mandan
- UNESCO
- 2013, one of six Hill Forts of Rajasthan
- The wall
- About 36 km
- Allow
- Two hours for the summit, a day to understand it
- A hill town, not a castle: think of it as a fortified valley with a palace on top.
- The layout: the main gates and the summit palace are close together on the eastern side.
- Spread across the slopes: temples, tanks, ruined houses and fields fill the valleys inside the wall.
- How to see it: a morning and an afternoon, with a guide who knows which path leads where.
Walk the wall at sunrise
Why: the one thing we would never skip. The wall runs for about 36 kilometres over the ridges.
Where: the stretches either side of the main gate give the classic view of it looping over the hills.
- When: at first light the stone is cool, the valleys are often misty in winter and you may meet no one but a shepherd.
- How: with a guide, a flask of chai and proper shoes, for an hour or two.
- Our favourite routes: our journal piece on the Kumbhalgarh wall walk.
Climb through the gates
What: a sequence of gates on the approach, among them Ram Pol and Hanuman Pol.
- Why the angles: set sharply so that an army or a war elephant could never charge straight through.
- How: walk this part rather than being driven, and ask our guide to explain the turns, the spikes on the doors and the narrow climbing paths.
- Why it matters: the best lesson in Rajput military architecture we know.
Badal Mahal in the late afternoon
What: the palace of clouds at the summit, added much later in the time of Maharaja Fateh Singh.
- Inside: men's and women's quarters, pastel painted rooms and pavilions open to the wind.
- When: the last two hours of light, when the views over the wall, the forest and the plains of Marwar are warmest.
- In the monsoon: the clouds really do drift through the windows.
Stand in Maharana Pratap's birthplace
What: below Badal Mahal, the older, plainer palace buildings of Rana Kumbha's time.
- The rooms: where Maharana Pratap is said to have been born in 1540.
- A pilgrimage: for Indian visitors it is one, and you may see families touching the walls.
- Before you go: read our piece on Maharana Pratap and Haldighati.
Neelkanth Mahadev in the morning
What: a fifteenth-century Shiva temple ringed by a colonnade of stone pillars, with a large black lingam, still in daily worship.
- When: in the morning, when local families pour water and milk over the lingam and the bells ring.
- How: shoes off at the steps, and walk round clockwise.
Find the Jain shrines and the Vedi temple
How many: more than three hundred temples, Hindu and Jain, by the usual count.
- The Vedi temple: a sacrificial altar on a high terrace near Hanuman Pol, credited to Rana Kumbha.
- Easy to miss: the Parshvanath temple and Bawan Devi, the fifty-two shrines, without a guide.
- Why: a half-day temple walk inside the walls is one of the quietest things you can do in Rajasthan.
Visit the Mamadev temple and the tanks
What: on the lower slope, the Mamadev temple and its stepped tank, a still, shaded place.
- Its story: Rana Kumbha was killed here by his own son in 1468, while at prayer.
- The water: ask our guide how the tanks were fed from the slopes above.
- Why it matters: water decided the fort's fate. The one time Kumbhalgarh fell, in 1578, it fell for lack of it.
After dark at the fort
- Show
- Every evening, narrated in Hindi
- Start times
- Change with the season, we confirm
- Afterwards
- Walls and bastions lit for a while
- Bring
- A warm layer, November to February
The light and sound show
The stories: Rana Kumbha, Panna Dhai's escape with the infant Udai Singh and the life of Maharana Pratap.
- Its style: dramatic and loud.
- Translation: our guides sit beside you and translate the key moments.
- Timing: start times change with the season, so we confirm them on the day.
Stay for the lit walls
What: after the show the walls and bastions are lit, and the whole fort glows against the black hills.
- Why: one of the most beautiful sights in Rajasthan, and very few people see it because they have already left.
- Our view: this alone is why we always suggest a night here.
Look up at the stars
Why here: high in the Aravallis and far from any city, the sky is full of stars on a clear winter night away from the floodlights.
- Where: several resorts below the fort have dark lawns and terraces.
- How: ask us to arrange a quiet hour with a telescope, and see our stargazing page for places across Rajasthan.
Hear Panna Dhai's story at the fort
The story: the nurse who gave her own son's life to save the infant heir, Udai Singh, and carried him to safety, eventually to Kumbhalgarh, where he was later crowned.
- Every Mewari child: grows up with it.
- How: ask your guide to tell it on a dark terrace after the show. It lands differently there.
The forest and the hills
- Area
- About 610 sq km
- Forest
- Hills and dry deciduous forest
- Known for
- Wolves
- Best hours
- The first hours after dawn
- Monsoon
- July to September, green and misty
A morning drive in the sanctuary
How: with a naturalist and an open vehicle, on the forest tracks in the first hours after dawn.
- What lives here: wolves, leopards, sloth bears, striped hyenas, nilgai, chinkara and the shy chausingha, the four-horned antelope.
- Honestly: sightings of the big animals are a matter of luck. The landscape, the silence and the birds are reliable.
- Our naturalists: our wildlife safaris page explains how we choose them.
Birding along the streams
What you may see: grey junglefowl, peafowl, red spurfowl, flycatchers, the Indian eagle-owl and raptors over the ridges.
- When: especially in winter, when migrants arrive and the leaves thin.
- How: with binoculars, early, with a local guide.
- Across the state: our birding page.
The forest walk to Ranakpur
The route: the classic Aravalli walk descends from the fort through the sanctuary to Ranakpur, ending close to the marble temple.
- Be ready: a long, steep day on rough paths.
- How we arrange it: only with forest permission and an experienced guide, in the cool months.
- Why: for keen walkers, the most memorable day in this part of Rajasthan.
Shorter village and forest walks
What: gentler paths of two or three hours around the villages below the fort.
- On the way: fields of maize and wheat, old temples and shrines under the trees, and seasonal streams.
- When: early morning, and in the monsoon months they are green and full of running water.
Watch the monsoon roll in
When: July to September, when the hills turn deep green and mist hangs in the valleys.
- The sight: clouds pour over the ridges and through the windows of Badal Mahal.
- Be aware: paths can be slippery and some forest tracks close.
- For weather lovers: Kumbhalgarh at its most dramatic. Our monsoon in Mewar journey is built around it.
The people of the hills
A morning in a Bhil village
Who: Bhil communities have lived in these hills far longer than there have been forts on them.
- Their history: Bhil archers fought beside the Mewar rulers, Maharana Pratap above all.
- The visit: our guides know families in the valleys, and arrange tea in a courtyard and a walk through the fields.
- How we go: on the community's terms, in small numbers, never handing out sweets or money to children.
Time with Rabari herders
Who: herders in white with red turbans, moving camels, goats and sheep between grazing grounds.
- The visit: a morning with a herding family, perhaps helping with the milking.
- Why: a window into a way of life under great pressure.
- How we work with them: our page on the Rabari herders.
The Kumbhalgarh Festival in December
Who organises it: Rajasthan Tourism, in honour of Rana Kumbha's love of the arts.
- What: three days of classical and folk dancers at the fort, with craft stalls, puppet shows and turban-tying contests by day.
- When: usually early December, with dates set each year.
Eating in the Mewar hills
A Mewari meal in the open
What to ask for: a lunch of village food, arranged by your hotel or our team.
- On the plate: makki ki roti, the flat maize bread of the hills, with white butter and jaggery, seasonal greens, dal and a spicy garlic and red chilli chutney.
- In winter: perhaps fresh mustard greens.
- The other great dish of Mewar: our dal baati churma piece.
Custard apples in season
When: October and November, when the Aravalli hills around Kumbhalgarh and Pali produce sitaphal.
- Where: village women sell baskets of them by the road.
- How: sweet, creamy and best eaten with a spoon, sitting on a wall with the fort in view.
Dinner by firelight
When: cold winter nights.
- What: dinner around a fire on a resort lawn below the fort, with folk musicians and the lit walls in the distance.
- Further afield: we arrange private dinners in royal settings, the most famous by the lamplit stepwell at Narlai.
Day trips from Kumbhalgarh
Slow roads: roads in these hills are narrow, so we group day trips by direction.
Towards Jodhpur: the western places all lie on that road.
- West
- Ranakpur, Ghanerao, Narlai, Jawai
- North-east
- Haldighati, Nathdwara, Rajsamand
- Ranakpur
- About an hour west
- Jawai
- About two and a half hours west
- Towards Udaipur: the north-eastern places lie on the road back.
- Make it part of the journey: pick the direction you travel in next, and the day trip stops being an extra drive.
- Every leg: our road distances guide has approximate times.
Ranakpur's marble temple
Where: about an hour west, down a winding forest road.
Why: the fifteenth-century Jain temple is one of the wonders of India, a forest of carved marble pillars, no two alike.
- Who built it: the merchant Dharna Shah, with Rana Kumbha's patronage.
- How: arrive as it opens to visitors, dress modestly and leave leather behind.
- More: our Ranakpur guide and our Ranakpur temple guide.
Muchhal Mahavir at Ghanerao
Where: the western edge of the sanctuary, near the village of Ghanerao.
- Why: its image of Mahavira wears a moustache, the only one of its kind, famous across India.
- How: a quiet, rarely visited shrine, and an easy stop between Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur or Narlai.
Parshuram Mahadev cave temple
What: a cave temple to Shiva high in the hills, said to have been carved by the sage Parshuram with his axe.
- Getting there: a long flight of steps down the hillside and back up, so it suits fit walkers.
- When: busy at the Shravan festival in the monsoon, quiet the rest of the year.
Narlai and the stepwell dinner
Where: west of the hills, beneath a granite hill crowned by a white elephant.
- The lodge: its seventeenth-century hunting lodge, Rawla Narlai, is famous for dinners by a lamplit stepwell.
- When: a lovely second night after Kumbhalgarh.
- More: read about Narlai.
The leopards of Jawai
Where: about two and a half hours west, among granite hills.
- Why: leopards are seen there far more often than in Kumbhalgarh's forest, and many guests continue for two nights.
- Deciding: our Jawai guide and our piece on Jawai or Ranthambore.
Haldighati, Pratap's battlefield
Where: north-east of the fort, in the hills towards Nathdwara.
- What happened: in this narrow pass Maharana Pratap fought Akbar's army in 1576.
- What you'll see: the yellow soil that gives it its name, the memorial to his horse Chetak and small museums along the road.
- Why now: a moving half day, especially after seeing his birthplace.
Rajsamand Lake and Nathdwara
Rajsamand: built by Maharana Raj Singh I in the seventeenth century, with marble pavilions and a long Sanskrit inscription carved in stone panels on its embankment.
- Nathdwara: nearby, Nathdwara is the great pilgrimage town of Shrinathji and the home of pichwai painting.
- How: combine them on the road to or from Udaipur.
Lunch at Devigarh on the way from Udaipur
Where: the hill palace of RAAS Devigarh at Delwara, between Udaipur and Kumbhalgarh.
- Why: the place for a long, calm lunch.
- Make a day of it: add the temples of Eklingji and the Sas-Bahu temples at Nagda.
Choosing by the kind of traveller you are
For history lovers
At the fort: walk the gates slowly with a guide, and give Pratap's birthplace and the Mamadev temple real time.
Add: the half-day temple walk inside the walls.
- Next day: Haldighati, reading our history of Rajasthan on the way.
- Why: few places in India let you stand in so many chapters of one dynasty's story in a single day.
- Seen Chittorgarh already: come anyway. Chittorgarh is a vast plateau of ruins and memorials. Kumbhalgarh is a mountain fortress in deep forest, and together they tell most of the Mewar story.
For walkers
Start: a long sunrise stretch of the wall.
- Second morning: a village walk.
- If fit, in season: the full forest walk down to Ranakpur.
- Bring: broken-in boots, a hat and a light rain jacket in the monsoon months.
For couples
The evening: Badal Mahal in the late light, the lit fort after the show and dinner by the fire on your hotel lawn.
- Then: a night at Narlai with dinner by the stepwell.
- The journey: our Rajasthan for two is built around evenings like these.
For families
The rhythm: active mornings, lazy afternoons.
- What children love: the wall, the gates and the langurs, the light and sound show, a jeep drive in the forest and a visit to a herding family.
- Where to stay: a hotel with a pool and lawns. See our travelling with children page.
For photographers
- The four great pictures: sunrise on the wall in winter mist, Badal Mahal at golden hour, the lit walls after dark and monsoon clouds over the ridges.
- The journey: our photography journey builds in the right light at every stop.
What we don't do, and why
No elephant or camel rides near the fort: our piece on why we don't offer elephant rides explains our thinking.
No commission shops: on the road from Udaipur or anywhere else.
- No feeding the langurs: we don't, and we ask guests not to. It makes them aggressive and unhealthy.
- No handouts: no sweets, pens or money for village children. If you want to help, ask us about the local schools our guests support.
- No rushed half-day stop: between Udaipur and Jodhpur, if we can avoid it. You miss the two best hours.
Practical advice for the hill
Shoes: wear proper walking shoes with grip. The paths are steep and the old stone polished smooth.
Water and a hat: there is little shade on the ramparts, even in winter.
- Shoes
- Proper walking shoes with grip
- Carry
- Water and a hat
- Evenings
- A warm layer, November to February
- Signal
- Patchy in the forest and valleys
- A warm layer: between November and February the hilltop is much colder than Udaipur after dark.
- Langurs: keep food out of sight on the walls. They are bold and quick.
- Working temples: shoes off, shoulders covered, and no photographs of worshippers without asking.
- Mobile signal: patchy in the forest and valleys. Tell us your plans, and our team will know where you are.
- The road from Udaipur: narrow and twisting. Travellers prone to motion sickness should sit in front and stop when needed.
Putting it together
With one night: Badal Mahal in the late afternoon, the show and the lit walls, the wall at sunrise, then Ranakpur after breakfast.
With two nights: add a forest morning, a village visit or the temple walk inside the fort, and a long, lazy afternoon at your hotel.
- One night
- Badal Mahal, the show, the wall at sunrise
- Two nights
- Add forest, village or temple walk
- Three nights
- Add Haldighati and Nathdwara, or Narlai and Jawai
- With three: add Haldighati, Rajsamand and Nathdwara, or continue west to Narlai and Jawai.
- On the map: Kumbhalgarh fits naturally between Udaipur and Jodhpur.
- On our journeys: it is at the heart of our Mewar and Marwar and Mewar lakes and temples journeys.
- Day-by-day plans: our Kumbhalgarh itinerary gives one-, two-, three- and four-day versions.
- Month by month: our best time to visit Kumbhalgarh guide.
- A base: our guide to luxury hotels near Kumbhalgarh.
