January 6 Ahamabad, old part of city

I'm a bit distracted as I hear about the tragedies in France and have been without Internet for several days. I have over 100 photos from the last few days. I'll try to summarize and pick some favorite photos to share.

jan 6,2015

A small group of us went into the old part of the city Ahamabad. This a city ringed by a wall and many (like 60) portals which separate "neighborhoods". it has over 1600 temples,shrines from the Hindu and Jayne religions. There are secret tunnels/walkways. The best part was this was a walking tour, so we got to get up close with the people. 

This series is a shrine for women only. Our guides could not enter so we got to go at our own pace.

This mandala was on the floor.

It appeared that the "nuns" lived in this shrine.

This door is the old gate to the compound of several large shrines tha also included the women's one I show above. Notice the spikes get longer and sharper the higher you look. This is because they used to use elephants to charge the gates. ouch! poor elephants!

A kite fighting festival is coming up soon. Our guides are pictured above. Alok, to the right is our primary guide for the whole tour. His dad was a champion kite fighter in his day. We learned that they coat the kite strings with tiny fragments of broken glass so they cut other strings of competitors. We enjoyed watching this process on the street.

They tape around each finger, separate 5 strings and rub that giant ball of pink glass Back and forth along the string. They have a sort of a dance. I took video, but don't think I can post here.

The makings of the glass covering.

There is some spectacular architecture. This is a Jayne temple. It is an offshoot of the Hindu religion.

Then we went into one of the biggest mosques.

Going in. Millions of pillars. Well, maybe hundreds... 

Such detail everywhere. Why don't we make stuff like this anymore?

Looking up. Oh did I mention it is all limestone and marble?

The markets flourish too,

Yes, cows are everywhere. Big old horns. Some are even decorated.

Lemon lime soda. I wish I could!

Dogs sit and sleep on any surface available, so people protect their scooter seats with these rocks. WE even saw a dog sleeping on top of a car.

A bird feeder. Lovely.