Achabal Gardens | |
Map Type: | India Jammu and Kashmir#India |
Coordinates: | 33.6831°N 75.2222°W |
Map Size: | 200 |
Built: | 1620 A.D. |
Condition: | Rebuilt |
Public Access: | Public garden |
Achabal Gardens, "the places of the princes", is a small Mughal garden located at the southeastern end of the Kashmir Valley in the town of Achabal, Anantnag district, India. The town is located near the Himalayan Mountains.[1]
The garden was built around 1620 A.D. by Mughal Empire Emperor Jahangir's wife, Nur Jahan. It was remodeled by Jahanara, who was the daughter of Shah Jahan around 1634-1640 A.D. The garden was rebuilt, following decay, on a smaller scale by Gulab Singh and it is now a public garden.[1] A main feature of the garden is a waterfall that enters into a pool of water.[2]
This place is also noted for its spring, which is said to be the re-appearance of a portion of the river Bringhi, whose waters suddenly disappear through a large fissure underneath a hill at the village Wani Divalgam in the Brang Pargana. It is said that in order to test this, a quantity of chaff was thrown in the Bringhi river at a place its water disappears at Wani Divalgam and that chaff came out of the Achabal spring. The water of the spring issues from several places near the foot of a low spur which is densely covered with deodar trees and at one place it gushes out from an oblique fissure large enough to admit a man's body and forms a volume some 46cm (18inches) high and about 30cm (10inches) in diameter.[3]