Balloons and camels are two ways to catch a ride here Nov 5, 2019

Balloons and camels are two ways to catch a ride here

Welcome to India"s largest camel and livestock festival, the Pushkar Camel Fair. Thousands of people travel across mountains and through the Thar Desert to buy and sell livestock and enjoy the carnival-like atmosphere here. The fair offers visitors many diversions, but it"s the camels who get top billing. Considered "ships of the desert," camels were domesticated by nomads thousands of years ago to carry goods across forbidding landscapes. When well fed and hydrated, a camel can travel great distances without needing water or food, sometimes for weeks. The humps on a camel"s back serve a purpose: they"re fatty deposits that act as a source of nutrition. Here, on the edge of the Thar Desert, the camel remains a mode of transport for nomads as well as a source for textiles, goods, and sustenance (did you know a camel"s milk does not curdle in the desert heat?). The camel is held in such high esteem, the Pushkar Fair even stages camel decoration contests.

© Anand Purohit/Getty Images

palette

Today in History

Nov 5, 2018Ludwig’s palace
Nov 5, 2020A medieval Moorish gem
Nov 5, 2021Pont Rouge
Nov 5, 2022Tigh Mor Trossachs on Loch Achray, Scotland
Nov 5, 2022Tigh Mor Trossachs on Loch Achray, Scotland
Nov 5, 2022Tigh Mor Trossachs on Loch Achray, Scotland
Nov 5, 2023Playa del Silencio, Spain
Nov 5, 2024US Election Day
Nov 5, 2025Peña Roya beech forest, Moncayo Natural Park, Aragon, Spain

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Mar 19, 2018Sanxiantai Dragon Bridge in Taitung, Taiwan
Jul 20, 2018Composite of photographs from the Apollo 15 mission
Mar 31, 2019Celebrating a Paris landmark
Jan 25, 2026Burns Night in Scotland
May 25, 2022The Alhambra in Granada, Spain
Apr 30, 2023International Jazz Day
Sep 19, 2019Fall for birding
May 16, 2018National Love a Tree Day
Feb 3, 2022Corjuem Fort in Goa, India
Jul 16, 2024Festival of British Archaeology
Mar 17, 2026Happy St. Patricks Day!
Oct 29, 2019And the skies filled with bats…
Dec 3, 2018Computer science on the page
Apr 11, 2018Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan Province, China
Aug 31, 2021Bridge over the River Tara
Jun 13, 2020A gorge-ous mill in the Causses
Mar 24, 2020Springtime in the Mediterranean
Jun 20, 2021Happy Father s Day
May 16, 2025Endangered Species Day
Jan 23, 2022Wedded Rocks, Japan
Jan 22, 2020A horse of many colors
Oct 25, 2018A silent witness to history
Jul 28, 2019Road-trip worthy attraction in the heartland
May 17, 2023Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, California
Mar 5, 2023Cherry blossom season in Tokyo
Aug 13, 2019An ice cap-puccino
Oct 15, 2022International Archaeology Day
Sep 27, 2025Astronomy Day and National Public Lands Day
Dec 4, 2025International Cheetah Day
Dec 31, 2018A new tradition in London