Places to visit in Ajmer beyond its famous Dargah

There are several lesser-known places to visit in Ajmer, besides its most famous landmark, the Dargah of Moinuddin Chistim. Since the time of Akbar, people have been coming to Ajmer to pay their respects at the dargah. The Nizam of Hyderabad even had a direct train running from his city to Ajmer for this purpose. However Ajmer had existed long before the dargah came up. As a city, it dates back to the 11th century AD, when the Chauhan King Ajayraj made it his new capital and called it Ajaymeru—combining his own name with the mythical Meru Mountain. Over years it became Ajmer, but in Ajmer you can often hear it being referred as Ajaymeru. Before Ajmer came under the domain of Akbar in the 16th century, it passed between the Chauhan kings, Mohammed Gori and Rana Kumbha of Chhittorgarh. A famous anecdote says that Akbar walked from Delhi to Ajmer on foot when his son Salim, who later became Jahangir, was born. Ajmer is a city surrounding the man-made lake Ana Sagar and is surrounded by the rocky hills of the Aravalli ranges.