Rani-ki-vav (The Queen's Stepwell) is one of the best places in India to visit. It's not big but the small amounts you see are "massive" and will stay in your head for a long time. Most people would just do this as a daytrip from Ahmedabad as it's only 2h away but seeing that there are other enjoyable things in Gujarat I added it to my trip overall.

First off you MUST buy your ticket online which is rather annoying for us foreigners. I didn't have a local SIM card for the 3 days in India and my driver already went to lunch so he couldn't give me a hotspot. Luckily the security guard gave me a hotspot. I was then worried that foreign credit cards wouldn't be possible to purchase the ticket (which is often the case for Indian security on the websites) but that wasn't an issue. So I got the ticket and could enter. There was a whole rush of people trying to navigate this online purchase but I managed to finish off within 3 minutes.

After ending up inside it's only a short walk to the actual site. The park itself itself is nice but what's worthy to come here. I'll say it now that I did walk around the entire area, which includes a toilet, but mainly because my driver was still out for a while and the temple doesn't take long to see either. In fact most of the time spent here was taking photos with other guests because they are so happy to see a tourist.

When you first arrive at the temple site you can immediately see it was worth it. The wide steps down lead to sculpture after sculpture. I took more photos here than all of the other Indian visits combined. Every corner you check out there's something worthwhile to see. I believe some have been restored because it's obvious the water elements doesn't abode to the temple. Some have been touched by tourists but there are also enough security to ensure this isn't a problem. They can't do much about the pigeons though. One can descend to almost all the way although the last chamber is not visible well. It's better seen from above which I'll get to in a minute. The stepwell was once flooded which isn't surprising when you see the location and water drains probably weren't properly installed at the time. I suppose it wouldn't help if the nearby river floods anyway.

So everything is adorned with sculptures. The walls, the columns, the steps, the "ceiling" (top layer?). Someone took a lot of effort to make this adorable. Overall you can see around 2,000 sculptures of religious deities, some large and many small ones. Plus you get to see patterns and designs all around. It's a bit of a shame the end is closed but I figure it's better to keep it clean. Maybe there's a special sight to see that part. I would also recommend a guide if you happen to have the chance because it would tell you a lot about the site (nobody was harassing me about it on the site but maybe I was "lucky"). Just looking around is great though.

It's also noted to be on the 100 rupee note but nobody was taking pictures of it together. You may be geeky enough to come with one that shows the same design and I find it quite cool. I used to that to many sites until cash became less used.

Finally, I walked around the top and you can sort of see down below from there.

It's not easy and you don't get to see much. You do see more than from the front because it's just blocked off. The pigeons below see a lot more and one can easily tell why it can be flooded. I figure these days they designed a better flow off for the water to drain.

I HIGHLY recommend this site. I spent a bit more of an hour here that includes walking around the park and seeing it from the top. If you just want to check out the temple interior then walking down and back up with some sightseeing is not going to take more than half an hour.