The Cholistan Desert And Its Forts
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The Cholistan desert, also known as Rohi, is a stark stretch of land that was home to a once-thriving civilization. Situated in modern-day Pakistan, this arid expanse was once the western part of the vast Thar desert, nourished by the life-giving waters of the Hakra river. The name is derived from the Turkic word chol, meaning “sands,” and istan, a Persian suffix meaning “land of.” Cholistan covers an area of 25,800 km2 (10,000 sq mi) in the Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, and Rahim Yar Khan districts of southern Punjab. The desert stretches about 480 kilometres in length, with a width varying between 32 and 192 kilometres.
Cholistan is divided into the Greater Cholistan and Lesser Cholistan, which are roughly divided by the dry bed of Hakra river. Greater Cholistan is a mostly sandy area in the south and west part of the desert up to the border with India, and covers an area of 13,600 km2 (5,300 sq mi). Sand dunes in this area reach over 100 meters in height and the soil is highly saline. Lesser Cholistan is an arid and slightly less sandy region approximately 12,370 km2 (4,780 sq mi) in area, which extends north and east from the old Hakra river bed, historically up to the banks of another river, the Sutlej.
