Mysore Palace (Amba Vilas)

The current Mysore Palace, properly Amba Vilas, is the third on the site. The earlier 14th-century Wadiyar fort palace and a wooden 19th-century replacement both burned down; the present structure was built between 1897 and 1912 by British architect Henry Irwin in the Indo-Saracenic style — a fusion of Hindu, Muslim, Rajput, and Gothic elements. The grand Durbar Hall, the Kalyana Mantapa with its peacock-motif stained-glass dome, and the marble-floored throne room are the showpieces. Mysore Dasara — celebrated for ten days in September/October — is the city's defining festival: a 750-year tradition started by the Vijayanagara emperors and revived under the Wadiyars, culminating in a procession of caparisoned elephants carrying the goddess Chamundeshwari from the palace to Bannimantap. Every Sunday evening and during all national holidays, the palace facade is lit by ~98,000 incandescent bulbs — a Mysore postcard image.