Photo-Documentary_1
A Journey through the Monument of Great.
A Journey through the Monument of Great.
The Raigad Fort is a hill fortress at 2,700 feet above sea level, sitting atop a wedge shaped block of hill that is split from theWestern ghats. It is like a vertical rock face that seems to be a chisseled from a mountain of solid rock face and has 1450 stepsleading to the top of the fort.
The fort has a strategic location, and is accessible from only one side, with the other three sidesinaccessible. It is a well engineered structure with a primary focus on defense and has numerous palaces and monuments.Europeans historians have even described it as the “Gibraltar of the East”.
Raigad Fort was the main headquarters of Maratha King Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his vision and symbol of HindaviSwarajya.
The fort has been designed very cunningly so that it is difficult to detect the location of the main entrance which is hidden by theblind curves of the walls of the fort, making it impossible even in earlier times for elephants to break the fort entrance.
To reach the main entrance of the Raigad Fort one has to enter first through Chit or Jit Darwaja at the foothills near the village Pachad.Then one climbs up to Khoob Ladha Buruj, a strategically located turret. From here is a steep climb to reach the main entance-Maha Darwaja which is almost 350- years old.
Raj Sabha: The Raigad Fort had a huge sprawling lawn where the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj took place when he took overthe throne of the Maratha kingdom.
The throne was studed with diamonds and had eight columns of pure gold weighing almost 1,000 kgs with an emblem of Shivaji Maharaj.
The common public could enter the Raj Sabha through the Nagarkhana which had a ground outside for the Holi festival and was therefore called as Holi Cha Mal.
