Jaipur is popularly known as the Pink City, thanks to the color of the buildings in the city. The city, built in 1727 A.D by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, followed a grid system, which made it the only planned city of its time. A young Bengali architect Vidhyadhar Bhattacharya designed the city in accordance with the Shilp Shastra - an ancient Hindu treatise on architecture. The city, spread over 64.75 sq. km., lies at an altitude of 431 meters. The area of the Pink City alone is 9.8 sq. km. Today's Jaipur is pink, visually described as the city shaded with the autumn colours of a sunset. Although originally the walls were render set and pigmented the colour of red sandstone, Jaipur's universal coat of pink only came in 1876 to coincide with the visit of the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII). Almost the entire city was given a coat of pink paint, thus giving it the name "The Pink City".