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to control the caravan routes which , crossing the Thar desert , have always connected East and West . Traces of great charm remain of this role and this history , starting from the splendid circle of walls that surround it , interspersed with the rounded towers still intact erected at the dawn of the year 1000 . Inside , where it is a great pleasure to walk through the increasingly narrow alleys , there is a succession of palaces and temples such as the intricate Jain complex with a thousand chiseled sacred decorations , or the Raj Mahal , the royal palace , and the four gates , massive buildings that , as in the past , guard the entrance to the heart of the city . But its beauty is not only contained within the fortified citadel , but also all around , with Gadisar Lake or Bada Bagh on the immediate outskirts or , just about forty kilometres towards the border with Pakistan , the high dunes of the Thar desert , an irresistible attraction
for any motorbike and adventure lover who manages to go as far as the city of Sam .
But if Jaisalmer is the " Golden City " due to its colour , Jodphur , our next destination , no more than 350 kilometres away , is known throughout the world as the " Blue City ". A name that it owes to the colour with which most of its houses are painted and which , as in the past , stretch out in a tangle of alleys under the grandeur of the Mehrangarh fortress .
Jodphur is magnificent , perhaps among the city-states that characterise the land of the Rajput warriors , the one that has enchanted us the most for the beauty and harmony of its ancient heart , especially when , leaving the square of the Clock Tower , you immerse yourself among the alleys of its endless bazaar , among the colours of the fabric shops or the scent of the spices for which the city is famous .
The Mehrangarh fort stands on a hill and the climb that leads to Jai Pol , the entrance gate to this imposing military structure , with bastions up to 36 metres high , is short and arduous .
The road that brought us here , we must confess , was not particularly exciting , just as the itinerary that , the next day , from the city founded by Rao Jodha will take us south , to Mount Abu where , to reflect in the waters of a golden lake we would find Guru Sikhara , the highest peak of the Aravalli , the mountain range among whose peaks the mighty fortresses have found their place which make this part of India unique . The landscape has lost the harshness of the desert and now the mountains we enter are covered with wild kingdom vegetation . But Mount Abu is also a place full of legends like the one that tells how all 330 million deities of the Hindu pantheon come to visit this sacred mountain from time to
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