Jaisalmer Fort

Interesting facts

The fort's Jain library holds the earliest known painted palm-leaf manuscript, a copy of the Oghaniryukti dated 1060.

The Jain temple of Sambhavanatha, built by the merchant Askaran Chopra of Merta, contains more than 600 images of Jain teachers.

Jaisalmer is the second-oldest fort in Rajasthan, founded when Rawal Jaisal abandoned his earlier capital at Lodhruva for this hilltop.

The fortified hilltop measures about 460 metres by 230 metres, and the ring of upper bastions runs for roughly four kilometres.

The siege of around 1299 is said to have been provoked by a Bhati raid on a treasure caravan of Sultan Alauddin Khalji.

A built-in drainage system called the ghut nali carries rainwater off the hill in all four directions, though later building has weakened it.

The Vyas haveli inside the fort dates from the 15th century and is still occupied by descendants of the family who built it.

Baa Ri Haveli, a house about 450 years old that belonged to Brahmin priests advising the rulers, now displays everyday objects of life in the fort.

American Express has contributed more than one million dollars toward the conservation of the fort, alongside the World Monuments Fund.

Why it is worth it

Jaisalmer Fort is one of the very few living forts in the world. Roughly a quarter of the old city's population still lives inside its walls, some 4,000 people, many descended from the Brahmin and Rajput families who once served the Bhati rulers and earned the right to live on the hilltop. Built in 1156 by Rawal Jaisal on Trikuta Hill in the Thar Desert, it stood at a crossroads of caravan routes, and for most of its history the fort simply was the city; the first settlements outside its walls appeared only in the 17th century. Its yellow sandstone glows tawny by day and honey-gold at sunset, which gave it the name Sonar Quila, the Golden Fort.

The defences form three concentric rings on a hill about 76 metres high, from a 4.6-metre wall at the base to an upper circuit studded with 99 bastions, 92 of them built or rebuilt between 1633 and 1647. Four fortified gates lead up from the town. Around 1299 the fort fell to Alauddin Khalji of Delhi after a long siege that ended, according to tradition, in a jauhar; in 1541 its ruler fought the Mughal emperor Humayun, and the fort was later under Mughal control until 1762. In 1818 a treaty with the East India Company left the fort in the hands of its rulers. The rise of sea trade through Bombay and, after 1947, the closure of the old routes across the new border ended Jaisalmer's commercial role.

Inside, the fort is a dense web of lanes, the former royal palace, the Laxminath temple and seven Jain temples carved in sandstone between the 12th and 16th centuries, alongside ornate merchant havelis, some still inhabited by the families who built them. Satyajit Ray set and filmed his detective story Sonar Kella here, drawing generations of Bengali visitors. Life inside has a cost: water seepage into the soft sedimentary rock has caused parts of the walls and the Queen's Palace to collapse, and the fort appeared repeatedly on the World Monuments Watch before major conservation work. Since 2013 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan.

Getting there

The fort rises at the southern edge of Jaisalmer, about 1 km from the town centre. Jaisalmer Airport (JSA), a civil terminal at a military air base, lies a few kilometres from town and has domestic flights. Jaisalmer railway station has a direct overnight train from Delhi, and buses connect the city with Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

From the encyclopaedia

Jaisalmer Fort is situated in the city of Jaisalmer, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is one of the very few "living forts" in the world, as nearly one fourth of the old city's population still resides within the fort. For the better part of its 860-year history, the fort was the city of Jaisalmer. The first settlements outside the fort walls, to accommodate the growing population of Jaisalmer, are said to have come up in the 17th century.

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Jaisalmer Fort

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia