The amazing Golden Fort of Jaisalmer is a living fort. It holds 300 families, one quarter of the city’s populations. The fort has 99 bastions (lucky number?) that snake around the lower walls. Like Meherangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer’s Golden Fort was built in 1156 and maintained by fiercely independent rulers who accrued enormous amounts of wealth through imposing heavy levies on caravans passing through their territory. They made huge expenditures to create opulent palaces and impenetrable fortresses to protect them. The Dussehra Festival is a very popular celebration in Rajasthan around October where Lord Rama kills the demon king Ravana. A burning of an effigie of the demon follows a loud parade.