Jaisalmer Fort

Jaisalmer Fort crowns Trikuta Hill in the city of Jaisalmer, in the Thar Desert of western Rajasthan. It is built of yellow sandstone that turns golden in the late afternoon, giving it the name Sonar Quila, the Golden Fort. It is part of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan World Heritage Site, inscribed by UNESCO in 2013.

Rawal Jaisal, a Bhati Rajput ruler, founded the fort in 1156, and it stood on caravan routes that linked India with Persia and Central Asia. For most of its history the fort was the city of Jaisalmer, until settlements spread outside the walls from the seventeenth century.

About a quarter of the old city's population still lives inside the fort, which makes it one of the few living forts in the world. Narrow lanes lead past havelis, homes, shops and guesthouses. The Raj Mahal, the former royal palace, is now a museum, and a group of Jain temples from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries have finely carved stone interiors.

The fort has 99 bastions and is entered through a series of gates. Entry to the fort area is free, while the palace museum and Jain temples charge fees and have set hours. Water seepage from modern use has damaged parts of the structure, so visitors are encouraged to use water carefully when staying inside.

The fort is about 460 metres long and 230 metres wide, on a hill that rises around 76 metres above the surrounding land. Its upper ring of bastions runs for about 4 kilometres, and 92 of the 99 bastions were built or largely rebuilt between 1633 and 1647. Four fortified gateways lead up from the town, the best known being Suraj Pol. About 4,000 people live in the old section.

The fort has seen hard sieges. Around 1299 Rawal Jait Singh I held out against a long siege by Alauddin Khalji of the Delhi Sultanate, and the Mughal emperor Humayun attacked in 1541. Besides the seven Jain temples, built of yellow sandstone between the 12th and 16th centuries, the Laxminath temple is dedicated to Lakshmi and Vishnu. The World Monuments Fund placed the fort on its watch list in 1996, 1998 and 2000 because of population and tourism pressure. Film fans know it as the setting of Satyajit Ray's detective story Sonar Kella, which he wrote and later filmed here.