JAISALMER FORT Location of jaisalmer:-

•located within a rectangle lying between 26°.4’ –28°.23' North parallel and 69°.20'-72°.42' eastmeridians. •bounded on the north by Bikaner, on the west & south-west by the Pakistani border, on the south by Barmer and Jodhpur, and on the east by Jodhpur and Bikaner Districts.

Jaisalmer Fort location is located in the very heart of the Jaisalmer city. It is located 7 km from the railway station and 5 km from the bus station. Jaisalmer Fort timings start early in the morning and people can visit them till 5.00 pm.

Location of jaisalmer fort

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS•Highest ever recorded temperature was 48.0 °C (118.4 °F) and the lowest ever recorded temperature being −5.9 °C (21.4 °F).•The climate of Jaisalmer is typical of a hot desertregion.•There is scanty and unreliable rainfall (averageannual precipitation being less than 200mm). •Two seasons predominate, summer and winter. •In summer the day-time temperature can reach up to 45°C and down to 25°C at night.•Similarly in winter the temperatures vary between 25°C and5°C. •The diurnal range of temperatures is between 15°C and20°C. Relative humidity in summer can be less than 10% inthe day•The sky is mostly clear andsolar radiation is intense throughout the year •During the summer months, wind velocity isusually high and there are severe dust storms during May andJune.

[hide]Climate data for Jaisalmer

Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year

Average high °C (°F)

23.7(74.7)

27.2(81)

32.8(91)

38.4(101.1)

41.7(107.1)

40.9(105.6)

37.7(99.9)

36.0(96.8)

36.5(97.7)

36.1(97)

31.1(88)

25.4(77.7)

34.05(93.29)

Average low °C (°F)

7.9(46.2)

10.9(51.6)

16.8(62.2)

22.2(72)

25.7(78.3)

27.1(80.8)

26.5(79.7)

25.4(77.7)

24.3(75.7)

20.5(68.9)

13.8(56.8)

8.9(48)

19.17(66.51)

Precipitation

mm (inches)

1.3(0.051)

4.0(0.157)

3.2(0.126)

18.1(0.713)

9.2(0.362)

16.1(0.634)

56.1(2.209)

79.0(3.11)

16.2(0.638)

2.5(0.098)

1.3(0.051)

2.5(0.098)

209.5(8.247)

Avg. precipitation

days (≥ 0.1 mm)

0.6 1.0 0.9 0.4 0.8 1.1 3.9 3.9 2.1 0.4 1.1 0.5 16.7

Source: WMO

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NATURAL COOLING SYSTEMSLayoutIn Jaisalmer, the layout of the town is the first defence againstthe harsh climate. Even though the major streets are notparticularly narrow, the street orientation of WNW-ESEensures that the building facades are either shaded by thebalcony and sunshade projections

TextureThe building facades have a large number of projections like sunshades and balconies . At the smallest level, the flat parts of the building facades are deeply carved creating finned surfaces. Such uneven structures and surfaces can be considered extended surfaces. in a hot climate, where the major heat source is the sun, solar exposed extended surfaces will be cooler than plain surfaces. In the evening, when the ambient air-cools down, the extended surface will also cool down faster than a plain surface. However, an extended surface that is shaded all the time will warm up faster than a plain surface under similar conditions.

•Textured surfaces are used only in the upper part of building facades, which are likely to be exposed to sun. •Plain walls are used in the lower part of north and south facades and over the full height of east and west facades, which are shaded, almost all day because of their thermal load levelling characteristics, •thick walls of materials like stone or mud are capable of reducing heat gain due to solar radiation, even without surface texture. In Jaisalmer, the walls with texture are only 50mm thick while the massive walls are 450mm to 600m thick.

Uneven Building Form

The increased wall area of an uneven building mass radiates a greater amount of heat to the sky and consequently it stays cooler than a more compact mass. Thus it is to be expected that the uneven built form of Jaisalmer with large wall areas helps in keeping the building cool.

VENTILATION

Natural air movement through a building is caused either bywind or by temperature differences between interior andexterior. When buildings are tightly clustered together, it isgenerally difficult to let winds into the house

•In Jaisalmer buildings, a number of interconnected verticalshafts are used for ventilation. •The courtyard effectis well known and used in almost allhot-dry climates. •In addition to the simple courtyards, the windows, projecting chajjas, jalis help in proper ventilation in buildings.

Almost all houses in Jaisalmer have a basement; but theserooms were designed to be used only as strong rooms forvaluables. The temperature underground remains almostconstant throughout the year due to the absence of any heatload and due to rapid decay of the ambient temperature wavein soil. But in Jaisalmer in no case are such rooms ventilatedor lighted, as they are not used as living space.

evaporative space cooling. Butthere are a few places, in the palace and in one Patuwa Haveli,where fountains and cascades have been installed. From thesmall size of cisterns feeding these fountains it is clear thattheir use must have been limited to some special occasions.