This photo journal features prominent sights in & around the desert city of Bikaner. We 'did' Bikaner & the camel trek on days 13 to 15 of our 17-day tour. We were in Bikaner 2 nights, the night before & night after our camel trek. We stayed at the new Gaj Kesri Hotel which is featured in a separate journal. I have also included 3 maps to more or less show you our tour route.

"Rajasthan:"

Rajasthan, India’s desert state & land of the Maharajas, holds India’s greatest wealth of places to visit. In fact, 40% of all visitors to India visit Rajasthan. It is a land of golden sands & vibrant colors, a land where you will see fantastic forts, palaces, temples & havelis (opulent traditional mansions). Here you will find a “blue city’ (Jodhpur), a ‘pink city’ (Jaipur),& a ‘golden city’ (Jaisalmer). You will see camel carts mixed in with the traffic along highways & streets, proud men men sporting large curved moustaches & colorful turbans, women in saris in a rainbow of colors, & holy cows everywhere & anywhere. The best time to visit Rajasthan is between October & early April when it’s not so hot with very little humidity.

"Bikaner:"

Bikaner is Rajasthan’s dusty desert city as well as camel capital as they have the best riding camels in the world. Although not as well set up for tourism as other Rajasthan cities, Bikaner has a busy camel safari scene as more & more tourists are opting to take the desert camel safaris from Bikaner, thus avoiding the Jaisalmer hustle.

Bikaner does have attractions, other than camels, however, ie the impressive Junagarh Fort with 37 bastions, 37 palaces & dazzling interiors, colorful Jain Temples, & many opulent old ‘havelis’ (traditional mansions), some now operating as hotels. Nearby is the notorious Karni Mata Temple, 30 kms south, where pilgrims worship thousands of holy rats, & the national research center on camels, aka the ‘camel farm’.

Bikaner was founded in 1486 by Rao Bika (hence Bika-ner), one of the 14 sons of Rao Jodha, the founder of Jodh-pur. (Apparently, ‘ner’ means settlement, & ‘pur’ means a walled city.) Located 386 kms west of Delhi in northwest Rajasthan, not far from the Pakistan border, Bikaner was an important staging post on the great caravan trade routes. Because it is situated in the middle of the Thar desert, the area gets very little rainfall & extreme temperatures, ie temperatures exceed 50 ̊C in summer & dip to freezing point in winter.

Other noteworthy sights we didn’t have time to visit include Lallgarh Palace, the Jain Temples, especially the 15th century Bhandasar Temple, the Lakshminath Hindu Temple & the numerous havelis.

"The Mughals:"

The Mughals were a Muslim dynasty founded by Baber who conquered India in 1526 & ruled until 1857. The Mughal Empire is considered to be the greatest of the Indian empires. They were able to unify the fragmented subcontinent of numerous Hindu clans and squabbling Muslim factions into a great nation. The power of the Mughals was so great that even after their downfall at the hands of the northern Hindu Rajputs, the Marathas and ultimately the British, their legacy has survived, particularly in the form of the unparalleled architectural splendor they left behind.

Background information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikaner

Their ‘official’ web site: http://bikaner.nic.in/

The photo gallery: http://bikaner.nic.in/photogallery.htm