Far out in the Cholistan Desert of southern Punjab, Pakistan, a wall of massive circular bastions rises from the sand like a mirage. Derawar Fort is one of the most dramatic and least-visited great forts of the subcontinent — a square stronghold of towering ochre ramparts visible for many kilometres across the empty desert.
Its scale is astonishing and its isolation total: there is little around it but dunes, the ruins of a caravan world, and the domed royal mosque and tombs of the family that once ruled here.
