Jaisalmer Fort: Third Technical Mission, Identification of a Pilot Project

Located in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India, Jaisalmer Fort is a walled complex of palaces, temples, and houses built in the 12th century under the rule of Rawal Jaisal, a Bhatti Rajput King. During the monsoon of 1999, two bastions and a large section of the pitching wall surrounding the fort collapsed. World Monuments Fund, which had included Jaisalmer Fort in the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites in 1996, 1998, and 2000, undertook an emergency fact-finding mission in December 1999. The technical assessment of hydrological and structural conditions that started in 1999 was completed during a subsequent mission in January 2001, when a pilot conservation project was also identified. The area selected was characteristic of the built fabric of the fort, and its condition was typical of the rest of the site. This report describes the outcome of this mission and includes a section on technical findings.