Bharatpur India

Lohagarh, or 'Iron Fort', was built in the early 18 th century by Maharaja Suraj Mahl. He built two towers within the ramparts, the Jawahar Burj and Fateh Burj. The fort occupies the entire small artificial island in the centre of the town and three palaces.

Golbagh Palace was built in early 1900's, in a Mughal-style garden. The history of the state goes back to the 5 th century B.C kingdom of Matsyadesh, when the ruler occupied vast territories near Multan. Maharaja Suraj Mal built one of the most strongly protected forts and a beautiful palace.

On 10th March 1982 this area, was declared as a National Park and in December 1985 it was accepted as a World Heritage site. This park welcomes more than 415 species of birds every year to nestle in it's 29 sq km, out of which 11 sq km are marshes and the rest is scrubland and grassland. This bird sanctuary also known as Keoladeo Ghana even houses sambar, chital, nilgai and boar.

Most of the parks of the ancient times were developed from the hunting preserves of the princes. But this park's uniqueness is that it was the only animal house created by a king (Maharaja) for hunting. Keoladeo is an ancient Hindu temple devoted to Lord Shiva in the centre of this park and Ghana means dense, which are in context to the thick area forests which covered this area. This is how Bharatpur National Park gets it's name Keoladeo Ghana. The most popular amongst all the migrating birds is the Siberian crane or the great white crane. It migrates every year during the winters, covering a distance of almost half the globe. The journey to this sanctuary is 6400 km from their breeding grounds in Siberia. There stay lasts from Dec-Mar. Many species of cranes, geese, eagles, wheatears, wagtails etc. and other migrating birds are found here.

The heronry of Keoladeo is one of the finest in the world. This heronry is a breeding ground for 17 species of birds namely grey heron, purple heron, night heron, large egret, median egret, little egret, cattle egret, large cormorant etc.

This spectacular harmony also houses a range of mammals and reptiles, nilgai, sambar, chital, leopard and the wild bear are some of them. Large rock pythons can also be spotted here. The park is open throughout the year, the best season to visit the park is between Oct-Feb.