Ahmadabad

I feel the need to push the opinion about this WHS back to “dirty, dusty and dilapidated”. Oh, and noisy too! Except for a variety of religious buildings (which were included to show the city’s multiculturality on a neighbourhood level, not because they are that scenic or significant otherwise), the OUV is all about the residential quarters (pole) and the domestic wooden architecture within these. 

Once you have left the hustle and bustle near Bhadra Fort and the Darwhaza Gate behind, the street scenery does indeed start to change from tacky shops and frantic horning rickshaws into normal living communities. It’s fun to try to navigate through the ‘pole’ to a connecting major street – sometimes you may stumble upon kids practicing cricket in the street, or even half a dozen cows resting. 

What’s “authentic” here is the urban plan. However, it’s anyone’s guess which plans the City of Ahmadabad has with the housing. Somehow you’d expect at least a certain upkeep as part of the conservation (they don’t have to be all turned into boutique hotels), but only a few structures have seen some TLC in the past decades and living conditions can’t be good (I noticed a real plague of squirrels for example). 

My visit immediately brought back fond memories of the Old City Centers of Lahore and Peshawar which I visited last year. They still house bazaars that ooze history and plenty of wooden havelis. They have great monuments you can enter …

Immediately after visiting the dusty cities that make up the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur), arriving in Ahmedabad seemed to be a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively. Yes, the classic mayhem and modern urban problems typical of Indian cities are all present in Ahmedabad. However, its RELATIVELY cleaner air, a well-maintained airport, gentrified riverfront, and less touristy feel made the city a rather nice place to travel to. Such observation is quite contrary to previous reviews, but a lot has happened since—according to a hotel staff I talked to, there has been a rapid development in Ahmedabad in the past several years, and he felt this beginning in 2022. The gentrification was of course limited to certain parts of the city, but somehow it worked. As mentioned by Solivagant, it’s notable that the current prime minister of India hails from the state of Gujarat.

Date of visit: after Christmas, Dec 2023.

We stayed for 3 nights in the excellent House of MG. The hotel is itself a beautiful, storied heritage building that was first built in 1904 and was once the home of the textile magnate Sheth Mangaldas Girdhardas. It was later converted into a hotel in 2014 and now enjoys a high reputation among locals, tourists, and travel websites. Objectively, the hotel deserves a visit for its history and architecture. Its location is also a plus—the hotel is built in Lal Darwaja, an area where the first settlements in the city were established. …

A few points which arose from our visit in Mar 2019 in addition to those made by earlier reviewers

a. The “Heritage Walk”. Ahmadabad is rather proud of this initiative which goes back to 1997 and is being copied in other Indian cities. It receives many mentions in the Nomination File. Annex 17 is devoted entirely to it and contains a map - but here is the brochure version. These seemed to be as rare as hen’s teeth when we visited, so it might be worth printing it down in advance just in case you can’t get one “on location”! All (most?) of the 20 “pause points” have a large metal sign with a copy of this map, a description and an arrow to show where you are in the maze of alleyways (Photo). The link in Joel's previous review, as well as having its own map, will lead to more detailed descriptions of each of the “pause points” than are included with the above map and would be a useful complement to it (click through to "Heritage Walk packages"). There is fun of course in finding one’s own way along such a route, talking to the locals etc, but there are also advantages in having the significance of what you are seeing (or potentially “missing”) explained by a guide. Much of the “value” (such as it is) of the walk lies in understanding aspects which might otherwise go unnoticed. We met no other tourists (Indian or otherwise) …

As other reviewers have noted, Ahmedabad is very much not a tourist city. It's hot, dusty and chaotic - even by Indian standards. We spent three days here in February 2019 as a base for visiting the three Gujarat WH sites (here, Rani-ki-Vav and Champaner-Pavagadh), and honestly it's difficult to really appreciate the World Heritage aspects of the city. 

To try and fully understand the place, we opted for the Heritage Walk Ahmedabad, a semi-official endeavour supported by the local government and a bargain at only 125rs. The tour went for a couple of hours from the Swaminarayan Mandir, through various pol districts and ended at the Jama Masjid. It was a nice way to see the various aspects of what makes the city: Hindu culture, Muslim culture, along with the unique pol houses, and our young local guide was quite enthusiastic. That said, most of the pol houses are crumbling and poorly maintained - maybe that makes them more authentic? But at quite a few points it was hard to distinguish which were the historic houses and which were far more modern. 

Overall neither of us were particularly impressed with the site. We've definitely seen worse, but have definitely seen better. Of the three sites in Gujarat, this was definitely the least impressive.

While in Ahmedabad I'd strongly recommend visiting the Gandhi Ashram across the river from the Old City. Gandhi lived here for about 12 years on and off, and large parts of it …

Ahmadabad is not exactly a beautiful city, with the historical buildings intertwined with all kind of modern ramshackle buildings and the typical indian street chaos. It's dirty and dusty and very lively. I visited the old core with the heritage walk, which definitely leads you to places you would not have seen by your own, but was also a bit overcrowded (mostly indian students). The WHS description concentrates on the old building clusters (called pols) in the innercity. Other Ahmadabad sites like the stepwells, the sidi-saiyyed mosque and the jain temple are not mentioned. The old havelis have a very dusty charme - there are intricate carvings, beautiful decorations, but everything has a worn-out feeling. On the plus side, it definitely does not feel touristy. The proposal also seems to be the only indian WHS that concentrates not on palaces, ruins and temples, but on normal residential areas - I would therefore welcome its inscription (also as an incentive to preserve the buildings).

Visited: Nov 2015

Importance 3/5 Beauty 3/5 Uniqueness 4/5 Environment 1/5 Experience 3/5

Visited January 2011 and May 2015

The first impression: Ahmedabad is a very dusty and very dirty city. But if you have a chance to spend there more than 2 days you will discover lots of gems - not only the mosques (Sidi Sayid, and Friday mosque) and museums (Calico Textile and city museum are the must!), but also beautiful old houses, temples, Badra fort (possible to visit now) and at least two step wells in the eastern part of old city.

Hint: as Ahmedabad is not a tourist trap at all you should know that there's only ONE place where you can buy postcards and souvenirs: boutique heritage hotel House of MG, opposite Sisi Sayid Mosque.