Bathinda is one of the oldest cities in Punjab — a flat, sun-baked trading town of around 300,000 on the southwestern edge of the state, about 220 km from Chandigarh and 160 km from Amritsar. Historically a strategic fortress town, it still wears its landmark: the imposing 1,800-year-old Qila Mubarak, a high mud-brick fortress at the centre of the old city that once held Razia Sultana, the only female ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, briefly imprisoned by her rebellious nobles in 1240.
Bathinda is not a major tourist destination, but if you are passing through on the way to Rajasthan or the Sikh pilgrimage sites of southern Punjab, the old city, the fort, and the handful of old gurdwaras are worth a couple of hours. The surrounding country is cotton-and-wheat plain — flat, irrigated, and stretching unbroken all the way to the horizon.