High above the city of Jaipur, perched like an eagle looking for prey, stands the Madhavendra Palace. Built by Sawai Madho Singh between the 19th and 20th centuries, it is the most finely preserved element of the rambling Nahargarh Fort, which occupies the opposite end of the ridge from its more famous cousin, Amer Fort. Nahargarh, dating from the first half of the 19th Century, is today little more than an impressive entry gate, an undulating wall following the geography of the hill tops, and an overgrown amphitheater. This only creates a more incongruous setting for the stoicism of Madhavendra Palace, rigid in its geometric symmetries and heavyset countenance. The Palace had been built as a royal pleasure retreat with a series of seven apartments, one triple-width for the Maharaja himself and another six identical duplex suites for his concubines. The series of labyrinthine rooms, corridors and staircases impart a sense of mysterious frolicking as one investigates the structure while its over-all delicate fresco wall paintings impart some sense of the opulence it must have once contained.