Asirgarh Fort

En un regard

Le château en bref

Perched on a hill rising to about 850 feet, some twenty kilometres north of Burhanpur, Asirgarh Fort commands the passage between Northern India and the Deccan, which made it a strategic gateway to the south. The site is distinguished by its three tiered lines of defence: Malaygarh at the base, Kumargarh midway up the slope, and Asirgarh proper at the summit, whose irregular plan follows the edge of the plateau. Walls of twenty-five to forty metres, pierced by gates including the Sat Darwaza, enclose a plateau of some sixty acres that once housed a substantial town. The black-stone Jama Masjid, designed for some 1,200 worshippers, can still be seen, along with the Mahadeo temple dating from the Maratha period, cisterns, a gallows, prison cells, and the remains of British barracks and cemeteries. The fort, protected since 1913, is overseen by the Bhopal circle of the Archaeological Survey of India and may be visited freely, without an entry fee, although the road access can sometimes be difficult. Its position offers a wide panorama over the surrounding countryside.