Derawar Fort ( ur, ) is a

fortress A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

Ahmadpur East Tehsil Ahmadpur East or Ahmadpur Sharqia (Punjabi, Saraiki, ur, ) is one of the five tehsils, or administrative subdivisions, of Bahawalpur District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Its capital is Ahmadpur East. With approximately 1 million inha ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Approximately 20 km south of the city of

Ahmedpur East Ahmedpur East or Ahmedpur Sharqia (), also spelled ''Ahmadpur'', ''Ahmed Pur'' or ''Ahmad Pur'', is a city in Bahawalpur District, Punjab province, Pakistan. It is the headquarters of Ahmadpur East Tehsil. It is the 69th largest city of Pakistan ...

, the forty bastions of Derawar are visible for many miles in the Cholistan Desert. The walls have a perimeter of 1500 metres and stand up to thirty metres high. Derawar fort was first built in the 9th century AD by Rai Jajja bhati, a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Rajput ruler of the

Bhati Bhati is a clan of Rajputs History The Bhatis reportedly originated in Mathura through a common ancestor named Bhati, who was a descendant of Pradyumn. According to the seventeenth-century Nainsi ri Khyat, the Bhatis after losing Mathur ...

clan, as a tribute to Rawal Deoraj Bhati, the king of

Jaisalmer Jaisalmer , nicknamed "The Golden city", is a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, located west of the state capital Jaipur. The town stands on a ridge of yellowish sandstone and is crowned by the ancient Jaisalmer Fort. This fort contains a ...

and Bahawalpur.Dawn News
/ref> The region was part of Emirate of Multan ruled by the Arabs. The fort was initially known as ''Dera Rawal'', and later referred to as ''Dera Rawar'', which with the passage of time came to be pronounced ''Derawar'', its present name. In 711 CE, the fort was captured by the

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

commander Muhammad ibn Qasim. It was thereafter ruled by the

Emirate of Multan Emirate of Multan (855 – 1010) was a medieval kingdom in Punjab that was centred around city of Multan, present-day Punjab, Pakistan. It was initially ruled by the tribe of ''Banu Munabbih''. In 959 CE, Ismaili Qarmatians under '' Banu Lawi'' ...

which was captured by Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1008 during his conquest of the

. The fort was then captured by the

Ghurids The Ghurid dynasty (also spelled Ghorids; fa, دودمان غوریان, translit=Dudmân-e Ğurīyân; self-designation: , ''Šansabānī'') was a Persianate dynasty and a clan of presumably eastern Iranian Tajik origin, which ruled from the ...

under Muhammad Ghori and it became part of the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).

. The fort then came under the control of the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

from the early 16th century to the late 18th century. In the 18th century, the fort was taken over by Muslim Nawabs of

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

from the Shahotra tribe. It was later rebuilt in its current form in 1732 by the Abbasi ruler Nawab Sadeq Muhammad, but in 1747 the fort slipped from their hands owing to Bahawal Khan's preoccupations at Shikarpur. Nawab Mubarak Khan took the stronghold back in 1804. 1,000 year-old catapult shells were found in the debris near a decaying wall in the fort. Nawab Sadeq Muhammad Khan Abbasi V, the 12th and last ruler of Bahawalpur state, was born in the fort in 1904. This historically significant fort presents an enormous and impressive structure in the heart of the Cholistan Desert, but it is rapidly deteriorating and in need of immediate preventive measures for preservation.

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Derawar Fort

{{Castles in Pakistan Rajput architecture Forts in Punjab, Pakistan Infrastructure completed in 1733 Palaces in Pakistan Buildings and structures in Bahawalpur District Tourist attractions in Punjab, Pakistan

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