Mysore Palace

Mysore Palace, also known as Amba Vilas, was the seat of the Wadiyar rulers of Mysore. A fort stood here by the late 14th century, and a palace was raised within it in the 17th century, then destroyed and rebuilt several times; Tipu Sultan pulled one version down in 1793. After fire destroyed the old building, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV commissioned the present palace in 1897. Designed by Henry Irwin with Edwin Fritchley, it was finished in 1912.

Among the biggest palaces in the country, it is a leading example of the Indo-Saracenic style, drawing on Indo-Islamic, Rajput, Hoysala and Gothic sources. Part of it is a public museum, while the current head of the family still lives in another wing. The grounds hold gardens, several temples, some older than the palace, and stretches of the old fort wall. Mysore Dasara has been held here since the early 19th century, ending in an elephant procession on Vijayadashami, and the palace draws more than four million visitors a year.