Rani ki vav
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How it came to be
Rani ki Vav, the Queen's Stepwell, is an underground well on the banks of the Saraswati River at Patan, Gujarat. It was built as a memorial in the 11th century under the Chaulukya dynasty. A text written by the Jain monk Merutunga in 1304 says that Queen Udayamati built it, beginning in 1063 and finishing twenty years later.
The stepwell was designed as an inverted temple honouring the sanctity of water, with seven levels of stairs and pavilions leading down to a tank and the well shaft. More than 500 principal sculptures, including Vishnu and many other deities, cover its walls.
When the river shifted in the 13th century, flood silt buried the well and protected it for centuries. Visitors in the 1890s could see only the well shaft and a few pillars. The Archaeological Survey of India began systematic excavation and conservation in the 1960s, and the stepwell was inscribed in 2014.
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