The enchanter ! The King of forts ! visit this fort just once and you will fall in love with it !God used all his power and built this beautiful mountain. On this perfect mountain a fort was built. Such a mesmerizing place that the king lived here for almost twenty five years. No other fort had this kind of fortune.
Diwali vacations had just started off when I was in school, I was in first standard I think , when dad planned this trek . Atmosphere was filled with enthusiasm and after packing all the required stuff we set off for this fort… On approaching this fort I had hundreds of questions popping up in my mind…
To describe the fort, it is like three ranges in three directions ! with a plateau in the centre having massive wall .Such a formation that it suits best for building a fort. No other fort in Sahyadris has such amenities .
Thousands of years back this mountain was habited by only saints who were in search of peace and did tapas. These saints carved out a few caves on this mountain. Later it was used just as a watch tower, until Shivaji maharaj recognized the potential and built a great fort on this mountain. It was made impenetrable with strong walls , three main entrances,plus many escape routes were constructed in the walls, tanks were dug at various places for the water supply
"Chor Darwaja" or the secret entrance
The fortified walls of Suvela Machi
Suvela ,Sanjeevni and Padmavati are the three machis with ballekilla standing in the center .
Sanjeevni machi stands on the base of a steep wall, it has a double wall with a trench in between the two walls for the soldiers to relocate. The outer wall having twelve bastions and outer fortified walls with special passages within them for better protection.
After visiting Sanjeevni machi we returned to the Padmavati temple . The sun had started setting and slowly a few stars were becoming visible. I had made plans to make a camp fire and sing songs and also enjoy star gazing but I was so tired ,that as I had my dinner I fell asleep and woke up next day to experience a chilling morning . We reached on top of Ballekilla and as the sun came up improving the visibility I was spellbound by the surrounding beauty of those mountain ranges .Then as the day went on we visited as many spots as we could and stared descending with heavy hearts but a firm decision that I’ve gotta come here again !
i knew u would surely write about trekking..Very well written..
ReplyDeleteThank you on my way in the morning!
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