Rani ki Vav — the Queen's Stepwell — is the most lavishly decorated stepwell in India, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014. Commissioned around 1063 CE by Queen Udayamati in memory of her husband Bhima I, it is built as an inverted temple seven storeys deep, descending in stages from a long approach corridor to a round well at the base. The architecture is the Maru-Gurjara style at its most ambitious: every pillar, every panel, every niche is carved.
The sculpture is the point. More than 500 principal figures and over a thousand minor ones cover the walls — the ten avatars of Vishnu, river goddesses, Apsaras applying make-up in mirrors, Nagkanyas with their serpent hoods, ascetics and warriors. The iconography is mostly Vaishnavite but with a generous mixing of all of Hinduism's stories. Come early in the morning if you want it quiet; by midday it can get crowded with school groups, especially on weekends. Allow at least an hour, more if you like sculpture. Photography is permitted everywhere.