Out in the Cholistan Desert, some 130 kilometres from Bahawalpur, Derawar Fort rises like a mountain of brick. Tradition says it was first built in the 9th century by Rai Jajja Bhatti, a Rajput prince, and named after his relative Rawal Deoraj of Jaisalmer, from "Dera Rawal".
In 1733 the fort was taken by Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi, and the Abbasi Nawabs of Bahawalpur rebuilt it in its present form. Its walls stand about 30 metres high, with forty round bastions, ten on each side, and a perimeter of around one and a half kilometres.
Beside the fort stands a white marble mosque modelled on the Moti Masjid in Delhi's Red Fort, and nearby is the royal graveyard of the Abbasi family. Every winter the Cholistan Desert Jeep Rally roars past its walls.
