Jaisalmer Fort, bearing a rich history of 800 long years, is waiting to tell you the story of its heydays. Along with history, art and culture, this fort will give you an eye-blazing sight of unforgetful panoramic views. Jaisalmer Fort mimics as if it has been made up of gold. That is because it was built with yellow sandstones which, on the falling of the sun rays, gives it a golden or yellowish-brown hue. If you want to witness the scenic beauty of the fort, you should take a look at it from outside, especially in the morning and in the evening, which gives it a tawny lion colour and a honey-gold respectively. At that very time, you can observe the fort camouflaging a yellow desert that gives it a golden adoration. That’s the reason Jaisalmer Fort is well known as “Sonar Quila” (Golden Fort).
Jaisalmer Fort is still standing tall in the vicinity of the great Thar desert on Trikuta Hill to the southern edge of the city. The hill, it is standing on, is providing a base to its magnificent fortification to dominate the entire skyline, one can see it clearly being many miles away. Due to its alluring history and architecture and stupendous view, it, along with other five forts of Rajasthan, was taken into the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Architecture
Jaisalmer fort is an architectural enigma in the pages of Indian history. This historic fort is colossal; 1500 ft long and 750 ft wide. It’s standing on a hill that’s rising above a height of 250 ft above the surrounding area. The base of the fort has a 15 ft tall wall forming the fort’s outermost ring within its triple ringed defense architecture.
The fort’s upper towers form a defensive inner-wall perimeter that is about 2.5 miles long. It has 99 bastions and 4 huge entrances. These entrances are popularly known as the Aksya Pole, Suraj Pole, Ganesh Pole, and Hawa Pole.
The entire architecture is made of yellow sandstone and displays typical Rajasthani designs and patterns. In some parts of the fortress you find a fusion of Rajasthani and Islamic architecture. It is no wonder as many Muslim rulers invaded the fortress multiple times and took control over the fort.
History
Talking about the history, Jaisalmer Fort was built by RawalJaisal in 1156 and the city of Jaisalmer was established by him, thus went by his name, Jaisal. It is said that RawalJaisal confronted with Alauddin Khilji of Delhi about an eight to nine-year due to a provocation made by his army which was a raid on the treasure carried by a caravan of Sultan AlauddinKhilji. By the end of it, he faced defeat and the Rajput women committed Jauhar (which was mostly done by the Rajput queens and women just in case their king got defeated so to escape from the disrespect of enemies).
During the ruling of the king RawalLunakaran, Jaisalmer Fort was again attacked by an Afghan ruler named Amir Ali. But the sad truth was when he realized he was going to fight a losing battle, he slaughtered his womenfolk as there was not much time at hand to arrange a Jauhar. As unexpected as it sounds, the army of Jaisalmer became victorious after getting reinforcement in the nick of time. He again fought with the Mughal emperor Humayun when the fort was under attack. However, the fort remained under the authority of Mughals until 1762 when MaharawalMulraj become the king of the city. Due to its strategic isolated location, this fort didn’t experience any attack or plunder from the Maratha. The British also let Maharaja Mulraj retain his supremacy on the fort and assured him to send protection in case of any invasions.
Jaisalmer used to be the trading route for international commerce, but the popularity got declined as the port of Bombay become more popular for the international trade and transit. After the independence, the ancient route was shut down and it went through an economic depression. However, it is now one of the tourist hotspots of Rajasthan and the revenue is largely generated for it being a popular tourist destination.
FORT TIMINGS
The fort opens from 9 in the morning till 6 pm in the evening on all 7 days of the week.
ENTRY FEE
There is no fee for the entrance in the fort. However, if you bring a camera or video camera inside the Palace Museum, then you’ll need to pay a sum of Rs. 50, 100, respectively, for the same.
Best Time to visit
Months between September – February, and March will be the best time to visit the impressive yet gigantic fort because of excessively hot weather throughout the year in the hottest state Rajasthan.