MYSORE
The interior ticket line slows after 11am when the tour buses arrive, so go right at the 10am opening. Shoes are left at the counter and photography is not allowed inside. If you can, be here on a Sunday: the full free illumination beats the short burst of lights at the end of the weekday show
The current palace was commissioned in August 1897 by Maharani Kempananjammani Vani Vilas (regent for the young Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV) after the earlier wooden palace burned down during a princess's wedding in February 1897. British architect Henry Irwin, who had designed the Viceregal Lodge in Shimla, was hired as chief architect and completed the structure in 1912 at a cost of about Rs 41.5 lakh. It is the largest of Mysore's seven palaces and a landmark of Indo-Saracenic architecture blending Hindu, Islamic, Rajput, and Gothic elements.
