Jakub Hałun, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Junagarh Fort
Built on the plain rather than a hill, and never taken in four hundred years — with interiors better preserved than almost anything comparable in Rajasthan.
A fort on flat ground
Rajasthan’s forts are on hills because hills are defensible. Junagarh is not — it stands on the plain, and it was still never taken. What that produced is a fort whose interiors were never sacked, and they are the reason to come.
Explore Junagarh Fort on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
The interiors
The palaces inside were added by successive rulers over three centuries, so the rooms run from red sandstone austerity to gold leaf and lacquer without ever quite settling.
Anup Mahal
- The audience hall, worked in gold leaf over red and finished to a standard that survives intact. It is the single most striking room in the building.
Phool Mahal and Badal Mahal
- The flower palace and the cloud palace — the latter painted with clouds and rain, which in Bikaner is less decoration than wishful thinking.
Karan Mahal
- The public audience court, and the clearest sense in the fort of what the space was actually for.
The museum
- Arms, manuscripts and, unexpectedly, a First World War biplane presented to the Maharaja. It is genuinely there and it is genuinely odd.
Getting there
It is in the middle of Bikaner and needs no arranging.
In town
- Central, on the main road, with the walls visible from most of the surrounding streets. Any auto will take you.
From Jaipur
- Around six hours north-west, and the drive is the transition from farmland into the Thar. Most itineraries arrive in the afternoon and do the fort the next morning.
On to Jaisalmer
- About six hours west across open desert. Bikaner is the natural break between Jaipur and Jaisalmer rather than a detour.
When to go
Interiors, so the weather matters less than it does elsewhere in the state — but this is still the Thar.
Season
- November to February. Bikaner gets extremely hot from April onwards and the fort is not air-conditioned.
Hour
- Morning. The rooms are toured in sequence and going early means moving through them ahead of the groups rather than behind them.
How long
- Two to three hours including the museum. The palace rooms are seen in a set order, so the pace is partly decided for you.
Worth knowing
A few things specific to this fort.
The route is fixed
- The palace interiors are visited as a sequence rather than wandered. That is what has kept them in this condition, and it means doubling back is not really an option.
Photography
- Rules differ between the courtyards and the painted rooms, and low light in the interiors makes flash tempting and unwelcome. Check at the entrance rather than assume.
The camel station
- The government camel breeding and research centre outside town is the other Bikaner stop and is more interesting than it sounds — a working station rather than a display.
Bikaner as a stop
- Most people give it one night between Jaipur and Jaisalmer. The fort justifies that on its own; the sweets Bikaner is famous for are the other argument.
Nearby
The rest of Bikaner.
Frequently asked
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