The ser­i­al site, sit­u­at­ed in the state of Rajas­ta­han, includes six majes­tic forts in Chit­tor­garh, Kumb­hal­garh Sawai Mad­hop­ur Jha­lawar Jaipur, and Jaisalmer. The ecclec­tic archi­tec­ture of the forts, some up to 20 kilo­me­tres in cir­cum­fer­ence, bears tes­ti­mo­ny to the pow­er of the Rajput prince­ly states that flour­ished in the region from the 8th to the 18th cen­turies. Enclosed with­in defen­sive walls are major urban cen­tres, palaces, trad­ing cen­tres and oth­er build­ings includ­ing tem­ples that often pre­date the for­ti­fi­ca­tions with­in which devel­oped an elab­o­rate court­ly cul­ture that sup­port­ed learn­ing, music and the arts. Some of the urban cen­tres enclosed in the for­ti­fi­ca­tions have sur­vived, as have many of the site‘s tem­ples and oth­er sacred build­ings. The forts use the nat­ur­al defens­es offered by the land­scape: hills, deserts, rivers, and dense forests. They also fea­ture exten­sive water har­vest­ing struc­tures, large­ly still in use today.