With an area of 30,000 sq km, Shekhawati is a semi - desert area located in the northeastern part of Rajasthan. Its USP is its array of early 20th century havelis (mansions), each profusely decorated with frescoes. On your travel to Shekhawati you can visit the wonderful buildings adorned with beautiful wall paintings constructed by the Rajputs and Marwari traders. Mansions, temples, wells, cenotaphs... all are entirely covered with frescoes. The area has been rightly called an `Open Air Art Gallery', and with good reason.

Shekhawati derives its name from a local medieval chieftain called Rao Shekha, and forms part of the Marwar subdivision of Rajasthan. The place is known for its excellent vegetarian cuisine and its businessmen. Gifted with business acumen, a large number of Marwaris made their way to the metropolises of Bombay and Calcutta during the 18th and 19th centuries. There they amassed huge wealth and showed it off back home. Nearly all of them built stunning havelis. The word haveli meaning 'an enclosed place' is of Persian origin. All these features of the Shekhawati region make it a must visit on your Rajasthan travel.

Shekhawati lay on an important caravan route, which connected Delhi and Sind (now in Pakistan) with the Gujarati coast. The merchant Marwari and Rajputs landowners of its small market towns prospered as a result of flourishing trade and taxes from the through traffic. These Marwaris competed with each other to construct grand, profusely decorated havelis.

Shekhawati today is famous for its havelis, richly frescoed structures. On your Shekhawati travel you can explore the towns and villages that form a part of the region. The main towns are Nawalgarh, Mandawa, Jhunjhunu, Fatehpur, Dundlod and Mukandgarh. And in each of these are dozens of havelis, most of them pretty similar. There are some, however, that are a cut above the rest, and if you want to see good, well-maintained (and sometimes delightful) frescoes, these are places you should include in your itinerary. In both Mandawa and Nawalgarh, check out the Chokhani havelis; the inner apartments of the havelis are closed to the public, but the façades are extensively painted. Within Mandawa, by at the Jhunjhunwala haveli, which boasts of a room profusely painted in gold. There is literally one haveli down every street, and exploring these delightful mansions is an experience we enjoy thoroughly as we sweat our way through the dusty towns and villages dotting this area. Mukandgarh, Fatehpur, Nawalgarh, Mandawa, Jhunjhunu -- each has its share of havelis, which you can visit on your Shekhawati travel.

All the main towns of Shekhawati lie within 15 or 20 kilometers of each other, a manageable enough area as far as distances are concerned; you needn't travel much to reach the next major attraction. Shekhawati is crossed by a mainline railway, linking the major towns with Delhi, Jaipur and Bikaner. It is better traveling into the region by bus. From Jaipur, the first town in Shekhawati you come to is Sikar, an unprepossessing market town two hours away by road (110km) that's only worth stopping in to pick up transport northwest to Nawalgarh, where you'll find better hotels and a more relaxed, rural atmosphere. Buses also run from Jaipur to Fatehpur (48km north of Sikar) - approaching from Bikaner, this will almost certainly be your point of arrival. Travelling from Delhi, the first town in Shekhawati worth stopping at is Jhunjhunu (245km southwest of Delhi and 180km north of Jaipur).

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