The Cholistan Desert is also known as the Rohi Desert. It is situated in the Punjab region of Pakistan and is the largest desert on the Indian continent.
The word Cholistan comes from ‘Chol’ which means desert in Turkish, but it could also come from 'Cholna' which means moving.About 2.5 million people live in Cholistan who are nomads and travel a
round the desert, looking for water and herding and trading camels. The people live a very simple life and are very religious. They still keep their primitive customs and traditions and place great value in music and singing. They have a very strong culture with many romantic legends dating back to ancient times. The women and men both wear baggy, embroidered and colourful clothes. They have fabulous desert festivals where you can see camels dancing and wearing even more colourful clothes than the people. People still live in houses made of mud and straw just as they did 200 years ago.
The Cholistan people make interesting handicrafts such as wall hangings, bed covers, carpets and blankets with bright colours and beautiful patterns with geometric designs.The desert expands over to Sindh and into India. The dry bed of the Hakra River runs through the area. When it dried up so did most of life there. Wildlife is scarce. Wild cat, jackal, wolf, squirrel, field rat, over 200 types of insects and as many as sixty varieties of snakes are found here.
The desert also has an Annual Jeep Rally, known as Annual Cholistan Jeep Rally.
It lies at an altitude of 400 ft. above sea level and covers an area of 23,500 sq. m. Temperatures range from 8º C in winter to 34º C in summer. There is very little rainfall in the area averaging about 3 - 5 inches annually. During the wet season the people built shallow reservoirs to catch the rainwater so that they could survive. Cholistan is changing because a canal system has been introduced.
Places of interest include the Derawar Fort where the tombs of the ex-rulers of Bahawalpur and 
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