The Gateway of India Tour

He offered his driver to show me around Mumbai for this particular day. He was a very kind Indian colleague. And I gladly accepted 🙂 Our target was the Gateway of India area. I was thrilled to finally see the famous landmark myself and check it off my bucket list after all the reading about it and seeing it in photos!

The Gateway of India

This 25 meter high stone archway is the landmark of Mumbai. The Gateway of India was erected to commemorate the landing in India of their Imperial Majesties King George V and Queen Mary on December 2, 1911. The land on which the Gateway was to be built was reclaimed from the sea.

The design of the Gateway is in the style of the 16th century Gujarati architecture by George Wittet. The main structure was in yellow basalt stone, whereas the domes and galleries were of reinforced concrete.

It was closed for public access; we could just walk around it.

I was trying to take a snapshot of the writings on top in front of the Gateway. They were written in majuscule. See the artful and delicate designs. Their details were very impressive.

Statue of Shivaji Maharaj on a horse at Gateway Of India.

In front of the premises was an area enclosed in green fence. This was in addition to the “keep away” fence around the main building itself.

On the foreground was the driver. His name was Paul. Below, you can see his finger on the top left corner 🙂

It was such a busy place full of people and vehicles jamming the streets. I was making my way through tight. They were such nice people, especially to tourists.

The Gateway was formally opened by the then Viceroy, the Earl of Reading, on December 4, 1924.

And it turned out, that Paul would be showing me most of the tourist spots and wonderful places around and outside Mumbai, India. I appreciated him a lot.