Jaipur: Albert Hall Museum Guided Walking Tour+Entry Ticket

Two hours, indoors, with someone who knows the collection

The Albert Hall rewards a guide more than most museums, because it is arranged by craft and material rather than by any narrative you would guess at. The ticket is included, which saves the counter.

It is also the right thing to book in the middle of a hot afternoon or during the monsoon, being entirely under a roof.

The building

Opened to the public in 1887, designed by Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, and the finest Indo-Saracenic building in the city — Rajput chhatris and stone jali screens grafted onto a European museum plan, in the pale stone of the Jaipur hills.

It stands in Ram Niwas Garden, and after dark it is floodlit and surrounded by an improbable number of pigeons.

Inside

The Egyptian mummy is what most people come for: a woman named Tutu, from a priestly family of Panopolis, roughly 2,300 years old, presented to the museum in 1887. There is a good display on how she was examined.

The real strength, though, is Rajasthani craft. Blue pottery from Jaipur's own kilns. Arms and armour, including Rajput swords with hilts you would not want to hold. Miniature painting of the Jaipur and Kishangarh schools. Ivory, brass, and a carpet gallery whose centrepiece is a 17th-century Persian garden carpet brought back from Lahore.

And a set of clay models made in the 1880s showing yoga postures — one of the oldest such records anywhere, and completely unexpected.

Practical

Two hours on your feet, indoors throughout.

Entry is included in this tour. Photography is allowed in most galleries.

The museum runs a sound and light show on the facade in the evening, which is separate and free to watch from the garden.

Check opening on public holidays before booking a Monday.