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Rajasthan is the
largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area.
It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable
Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert), which has an edge
paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its
border with Pakistan.
The state capital is Jaipur.
Geographical features include the Thar Desert along
north-western Rajasthan and the termination of the Ghaggar
River near the archaeological ruins at Kalibanga, which
are the oldest in the subcontinent discovered so far.
The Thar Desert is thinly populated; the town of Bikaner
is the largest city in the desert. The Northwestern
thorn scrub forests lie in a band around the Thar Desert,
between the desert and the Aravallis. This region receives
less than 400 mm of rain in an average year. Summer
temperatures can exceed 45 °C in the summer months
and drop below freezing in the winter. The Godwar, Marwar,
and Shekhawati regions lie in the thorn scrub forest
zone, along with the city of Jodhpur. The Luni River
and its tributaries are the major river system of Godwar
and Marwar regions, draining the western slopes of the
Aravallis and emptying southwest into the great Rann
of Kutch wetland in neighboring Gujarat. This river
is saline in the lower reaches and remains potable only
up to Balotara in Barmer district. The Ghaggar River,
which originates in Haryana, is an intermittent stream
that disappears into the sands of the Thar Desert in
the northern corner of the state and is seen as a remnant
of the primitive Saraswati river.
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