Jaisalmer:

The city is called "Golden City." We fully understood the reason for the naming when we saw the glistening whole city of yellow Jurassic sandstone buildings in late afternoon light.

Rawal Jaisai of the Bhatti clan founded the town in 1156 as a replacement for his less defensible capital at nearby Loduvra.

There were constant wars with the neighboring Rajput states of Jodhpur and Bikaner until 1294 Muslim invaders attacked and conquered Jaisalmer. In the 14th C. the Bhatti Rajputs retook the city, but provoked the second sacking when they challenged the Muslims at Ajmer. The relations with the Muslims improved in 1570 when the ruler of Jaisalmer married one of his daughters to Akbar.

The city prospered as a market center for traders on the overland routes beween India and Central Asia. The maginifient havelis of the merchants bear witness to those times.

The rise of major ports like Bombay and Surat diminished overland trade. Heavy taxes imposed on merchants by Prime Minister Salim Singh Mehta, worsened the financial state of the city in the 19th C. Eventually most of wealthy merchants moved out and the last death blow came with the Partition which severed its life-line trade route with highly sensitive Pakistani border.

The location of Jaisalmer gave renewed strategic importance during the Indo-Paki wars of 1965 and 1971. Now it is a major military outpost and the city survives on tourism.