Kuldhara Village

Kuldhara, about 18 kilometres south-west of Jaisalmer, was one of a group of villages founded by Paliwal Brahmins in the thirteenth century. The Paliwals were prosperous farmers and traders who managed to grow crops in the desert, and the village was laid out on a grid of lanes, with stone houses and a temple.

In the early nineteenth century the community abandoned Kuldhara and its neighbouring villages. Legend blames the extortion of the state's minister Salim Singh and says the villagers cursed the land as they left so that no one could live there again, which is why it's called a haunted village; historians point to drought and heavy taxes. Today it's a protected site of roofless houses, at its best in the late afternoon light.