Alwar, India

Roughly 140km northeast from Jaipur towards Delhi, the large, bustling town of ALWAR sprawls across a valley beneath one of eastern Rajasthan's larger and more impressive forts, whose massive ramparts straggle impressively along craggy ridges above. Traditionally the northern gateway to Rajasthan, Alwar's strategic position on the Rajput border resulted in incessant warfare from the tenth to the seventeenth centuries between the Jats of Bharatpur and the Kachchwahas of Amber.