Ancient Cities of Color

By Alex in Travel on Jun 19, 2008 at 2:04 pm


Photo: dietollevonlioe [Flickr]

Life in the Fast Lane blog has a very neat post about 4 ancient cities of color: The Blue City of Jodhpur, the PInk City of Jaipur, the Amber City, and the Red City of Marrakech.

Jodhpur, shown above, is called the Blue City because of the prevalence of blue-painted buildings in the old quarter:

Most of the buildings in the old quarter are painted blue to signify the Bhraman (Priest) class, but non-Brahmins soon followed suit, as the color was said to deflect the heat and deter mosquitoes, and suddenly everything turned blue, creating a broad vision of indigo from the hilltops.

LinkThanks Jon Jason!


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  1. Ian
    Jun 19th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    you’ve gotta love the contrarian in the photo that painted their house bright red!

  2. ted
    Jun 19th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

    Interesting how it came about because of class differences.

  3. bobo2854
    Jun 19th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    Maybe the red houses are the predators or something like that. Better yet maybe the red ones are single? easier way to get a date?

  4. joaquin
    Jun 19th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    Ha, I liked the color coded houses theory.

  5. Bex
    Jun 19th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

    I loved Jodphur and Jaipur. Totally recommend visiting them…

  6. rainbow
    Jun 19th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    My friend was in Jodhphur and Jaipur two months ago. Awesome pictures.

  7. K!P
    Jun 19th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

    ian: he’s not a contrarian, he’s just practical: yeah the RED house on the corner. youll find it.

    *conspiracy mode: i think the unified color thing is a plot to atract more tourists!*

  8. Capella
    Jun 20th, 2008 at 7:08 am

    Its a ribbon!

    Oh, sorry, wrong post. Wrong site too.

  9. Augusto
    Jun 20th, 2008 at 8:08 am

    The guy who sells blue paint in that town has it made

  10. Ali S.
    Jun 20th, 2008 at 8:41 pm

    I would love to see more houses/apartments doing this here in Toronto. So tired of the dull gray and brown combination. :(


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