Junagarh Fort: A Pearl of Desert

Junagarh Fort, fort of Bikaner is one of the finest and strongest land laid forts in the plains. Bikaner is situated in North-west side of Rajasthan situated in heart of thar desert.  Junagarh fort is one of beautiful fort, which is known for his beautiful architecture and gold leaf painting. This place was built during 15-16^th Century, during period of King Rai Singh.

Junagarh was originally known as Chintamani. Then during 19-20^th century when rulers leaved this fort and shifted to another palace Lalgarh, from there after this is known as Junagarh (an old fort). This fort is situated 1.5 km outside the main city of Bikaner.

Physical Structure of Junagarh Fort        

This massive fort is basically rectangular in structure having length of approximately of 986 meters. This is surrounded by a huge border of height 12mts and 4.4mts wide. It was surrounded by a moat which was 20–25 feet deep with a base width of 15 feet and top width of 30 feet.

This fort consists of 37 bastions (burj) and seven gates to counter enemy attacks. This fort is known for his unique art work done on stones of this fort. In this fort two types of stones are used mainly are red sandstones (Dulmera) and marbles. This fort contains temples and the palaces are preserved as museums and provide insight into the grandiose living style of the past Maharanas of Rajasthan. The fort is called “a paradox between medieval military architecture and beautiful interior decoration”.

Palaces inside Junagarh Fort, Bikaner

This Fort also contains several palaces like Karan Mahal, Phool Mahal, Anup Mahal, Chandra Mahal, Ganga Mahal, Badal Mahal etc. Anup Mahal is famous for his ornate wooding ceiling, Italian tiles, inland mirrors and gold leaf painting. Ganga Mahal was built in the 20th century by king Ganga Singh, has a large durbar hall known as the Ganga Singh Hall that is now the Museum, which has exhibits of war weaponry and also a World War I aeroplane.

Junagarh Fort Museum, was established in 1961 by Maharaja Dr. Karni Singh in junagarh fort. The Museum exhibits Sanskrit and Persian manuscripts, miniature paintings, jewels, royal costumes, farmans (royal orders), portrait galleries, costumes, enamelware, war drums etc. The museum also displays armoury that consists of one of the assorted collection of post medieval arms.