Adalaj Vav Step-Well

The Adalaj Vav (entry ₹300) is one of Gujarat's finest step-wells, built by Queen Rudabai in 1498. The five-stories-deep octagonal well is adorned with exquisite Indo-Islamic stone carvings; subjects range from erotic scenes to the production of buttermilk. It has three entrances and the temperature within is always a few degrees cooler than outside. Rudabai's husband, Rana Veer Singh, started building the step-well but died fighting Sultan Mahmud Begada. The sultan fell for the widowed queen, who promised to marry him if he completed the step-well. Once it was completed, in an act of defiance, she threw herself to her death into the well. The sultan killed all the architects in anger and their tombs now lie outside the step-well.