Wooden Mansions of Sidhpur India

When the woman at the hotel arranged my trip and added the Wooden Houses of Sidhpur I thought "why would I want to go all that way to look at wooden houses"? Boy was I in for a surprise. This fairly small town had 5 ot 600 of these fabulous houses. Streets and streets of them! And almost all not lived in but obviously maintained by someone.


These are called bohra wads. the residential areas ofthe Muslim Bohra community. Bohra houses were built perhaps more than a hundred years by the trader community people who settled abroad, but sent money to build house in their native country. A clear european influence is visible on facades and deoration as well as its unique streets. since most of the owners reside outside the country, one finds the streets quite empty, very unusual for indian streets.


The least well maintained seemed to be the buildings on the main street which housed shops on the first floor.



The main street

A melon seller

The donkey seemed to be all alone.
These garlic sellers were happy to pose for me.
This little girl wanted her photo taken then changed her mind.