In the end it is a child who leads the way, up a steep flight of stairs tucked to a side of the old City Palace. He pauses at the top to point out the edifice, before scampering off to rejoin his friends.
And there it is, much grander than I had imagined: the royal cenotaph (or chhatri), with its red Karauli sandstone platform and white marble canopies crowned with an onion dome. Built in 1815 to commemorate the death of Maharaja Bakhtawar Singh of the princely state of Alwar, the cenotaph is today better known as the cenotaph of Moosi Rani, a royal concubine whose act of satī on the old Maharaja's pyre elevated her posthumously to 'queen'.
By the cenotaph is the sagar: a vast reservoir ringed by ghats (pictured above). On a calm winter morning, the waters are green and still, reflecting the temples and dwellings that crowd behind them on the far side. A lone man walks out onto one of the ghats, scattering feed to a flock of pigeons that descends in a frenzy of feathers, while below them a small row boat lies tethered and forlorn.
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