New Delhi, Nov. 6 -- I first visited Champaner as a student of architecture in 1998. The sun was beating down as we settled in to sketch the imposing Jami Masjid, which became a model for mosque architecture across the subcontinent. I returned to Gujarat's forgotten city last month, two decades later, to find it the way we had left it: peaceful, picturesque, and deserted.

Spread over 3,280 acres, the Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park is located around a historical city founded in the 8th century by Vanraj Chavda, the most prominent king of the Chavda dynasty. Located 49km from Vadodara, it was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2004. The fortifications, monuments, mosques, tombs, arches, stepwells, tanks, cemeteries and gate...