Rani-Ki-Vav, Patan

Rani-Ki-Vav (the Queen's Step Well) at Patan is one of the most magnificent step-well in the World. It was added to the list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites in the year 2014 and rightly so. It is a distinctive form of subterranean water resource and storage systems on the Indian subcontinent.

It was built in the last decades of 11th century by Queen Udayamati as a memorial to her husband King Bhimdevan 1 of Solanki Dynasty. Measuring more than 65 meters in length, it is designed inverted temple  it is divided into seven levels of stairs with sculptural panels of high artistic quality.

At the ground level a free standing structure om two columns with an elaborate superstructure was built as a kind of ceremonial structure. The well is located at the westernmost end of the structure and consists of a shaft 10 m in diameter and 30 meters   deep. 

Beyond the entrance commences a stepped corridor  marked at intervals by landings where multi-storyed pavilions were built; at the end of a corridor there is a reservoir, beyond which is the well.

Adorned with exquisitely carved sculptures arranged in paneled niches. Both walls of the corridor, and the well itself, besides the pavilions, were  fully covered with large sculptures which must have numbered about eight hundred, and with many other carvings of a symbolic or decorative character.

There are more than 500 principle sculptures and over a thousand minor ones combine religious, mythological and secular imagery, often referencing literary works.