Derawar Fort

Derawar Fort, about a hundred kilometres east of Khanpur in the heart of the Cholistan Desert, is the largest and most impressive of the Cholistan forts. The square mud-brick fortress with its forty massive bastions stands forty metres high above the desert floor and is visible across the open plain from a remarkable distance. The walls are about 1.5 kilometres in circumference.

The fort is in private ownership of the Abbasi family — the descendants of the Bahawalpur Nawabs — and entry to the interior requires their permission. The exterior is freely visited, and the white royal cemetery with its onion-domed pavilions at the base of the walls is one of the most photogenic sights in southern Punjab. Best visited as part of a day trip from Bahawalpur or as an overnight desert camping trip.

things to do sight historic desert castle
A story
Derawar's forty colossal bastions can be seen from twenty kilometres away across the empty desert. The fort was rebuilt in 1733 by the Nawab of Bahawalpur on the foundations of an older 9th-century citadel; it remained the dynastic seat of the Bahawalpur princely state until the 1950s, and a Bahawalpur royal cemetery still sits at its base.