A Visit to the Beautiful City of Bikaner in the State of Rajasthan in India

There are very few historical cities that must be visited to learn about the history of Rajput kingdom in the State of Rajasthan in India. Bikaner is one such city, which is full of palaces, forts, and the famous temples. The city of Bikaner was built in the year 1466 by king Bika, who was the son of king Jodha, the fonder of the famous Jodhpur kingdom. There is a desert all around this city of Bikaner and hence remained well protected from the enemies attack in the past.

Bikaner is well connected by air, rail, and road. The nearest airport of Jodhpur is around 150 miles away. The Bikaner is a railway station, which is connected from cities like Delhi, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bhatinda, and Calcutta. The road transport buses are also available from all the major cities of Rajasthan for Bikaner. Bikaner is around 270 miles away from Delhi, 200 miles from Jesalmer, and 200 miles from Jaipur. The Junagadh fort is the most vital spot to be seen for the visitors. This fort is the only fort in the history of India that is never conquered by anybody. The king Raisinh put the foundation of this fort and the subsequent kings went on adding the palaces and the temples in this fort. There are in all 37 palaces, and 14 temples inside this fort.

However, the most striking factor is that we feel that all the buildings of the fort have been built at a time. The Chandra Mahal palace, Ganganivas Darbar, Anup Mahal, Shish Mahal, Gaj temple, and Karan palace are the places that must be seen in this big fort. The entire fort is extremely artistic and its architecture attracts many world famous architects to see and study the fort design. The picture gallery at the Karan palace is really the most beautiful amongst all. This fort reflects the ancient art and civilization of Rajput kingdom. The next place to be visited is Lalgarh palace.

This palace was built before around 100 years. King Gangasinh was staying here at this palace, which was designed by a British architect. The rooms of this large and spacious palace are very big and have been decorated nicely with the royal furniture of various colors and design made up of teak wood. The entire palace is built with the red stones and its external appearance is very impressive. The Rajasthan State Archives and museum also is a vital tourist attraction spot. This museum has thousands of ancient specimens of the Rajput kingdom. The museum remains open on all week days from 10 am to 5 pm and the entry inside the museum is free.

There are few nice outings and excursions available near the city of Bikaner. The famous temple of Karni Mata is only 18 miles away from Bikaner. Karni Mata is considered one of the forms of Devi Durga. The rats are considered very holy at this temple. There are thousands of rats here at the temple. Mostly all these rats are black. However, white rats are also visible rarely. The seeing of white rats at this temple is considered very lucky here and the person who sees white rat is said to be extremely lucky. The forest reserve of Gajner is also worth visiting. It is around 20 miles away from Bikaner. The wild life lovers would love to visit this forest. There are most beautiful Jain temples of Bhandeshwar and Sandeshwar near the town of Bikaner. The wall paintings made by silver varakh are very eye catching at these temples.

There are very good hotels available for the tourists like Hotel Heritage Resorts, Basant Vihar palace, Gajner palace, Man Bilas, Lalgarh palace, Karnibhavan palace, and Shivam. All these hotels offer at least 3 star amenities and charge around Rs.2000 ($50) to Rs.4000 ($100) per day for a nice double room. These charges are excluding all meals. The food is available in all varieties here. The Rajasthani food delicacies like dal bati and churma ladoos are worth trying here. The winter months from October to February are the most suitable to visit this historical city of Bikaner.

I have myself visited Bikaner many times and have been able to see new attractions every time. I would suggest and recommend all my AC friends to visit this historical town of Bikaner at least once. This would also give them a unique experience of staying in the hot desert full of sand.