The Mysore Palace was the seat of the Mysore maharajahs. The original palace burned down in 1897 and the present one, designed by English architect Henry Irwin, was completed in 1912. It's quite a sight to behold. "Spared no expense" is the phrase that comes to mind. The exterior is much more stately and well designed than the interior, which tends toward the outright gaudy, which may be why they do not allow photographs to be taken inside (they don't allow shoes inside either. I like wearing shoes). OK, they probably have a real reason but they didn't share it with us. There is some incredible stained glass and some incredibly intricately carved wooden doors, but there are also lots of mirrors and lots and lots of colors that probably shouldn't be used together in the same room.
A progression of three photos of the front exterior. These photos were probably taken every 30 minutes starting a little after 6pm local time (sunset is at about 6:40pm in this part of the world right now and being this close to the equator it gets dark really quickly after the sun goes down).
And then every Sunday sometime after sunset they turn on the exterior lights for about an hour. It's a truly spectacular sight. A little Disneyland-ish maybe, but worth the trip in and of itself.
There's a small 7- or 8-piece band that plays music while the lights are on. The first piece of music they played was The Colonel Bogey March, better known as the theme from the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai". With this view and with this music it's hard not to sense the lasting vestiges and hear the lasting whispers of the old British empire.
A couple more photos. The first looking back at the main entrance gate from the courtyard, and then a view from outside the gate looking toward the palace.
And a couple of postcard images I grabbed off the web:
to be continued. . .
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