The Camel City of Rajasthan — Junagarh Fort's 400-year-old unbreached walls, rat-temple at Deshnok, and the finest bhujia snack mix in India made here since the 1870s
Bikaner (pop. 700,000) in the northern Thar Desert of Rajasthan is less touristed than Jaipur, Jodhpur, or Jaisalmer — but Junagarh Fort, built in 1589 and never captured by any invader, has arguably the finest interior palace complex in Rajasthan, with intricately carved sandstone and marble chambers, a Mughal-era hammam, a WWII-era biplane displayed in the Anup Mahal, and a collection of medieval manuscripts. Bikaner is also famous for bhujia — the thin, spiced chickpea-and-moth-bean flour noodle snack that originated here in the 1870s and is now exported globally under the 'Haldiram's' and…
Bikaner was founded in 1488 by Rao Bika, a son of the Jodhpur founder Rao Jodha, who left his father's kingdom to establish his own state in the empty desert to the north. The Rathore Rajput dynasty of Bikaner maintained uneasy but largely cooperative relations with the Mughal Empire from the 1570s onward — Maharaja Rai Singh (1571–1612) was a senior general in Akbar's army, and the Mughal aesthetic influence is visible throughout Junagarh Fort's interior decoration. The fort was never taken by military assault — unlike every other major Rajput fort of the period, Junagarh sits on flat desert…