Raigad Fort - Best fort in Maharashtra

Planned long back and finally successful. Some trips are planned well and some are better implemented, this trip took too long to materialise but then finally it did. So one day suddenly my friend told me about this trip as it’s very rare that my friends plan a trip and I, like always am ever ready for trips and this was a good chance so we planned things and decided this day.

18th Feb 2018 - We left for Raigad fort which is around 150 km away from our place in Navi Mumbai. We left at around 7:15pm and we took the route via Panvel - Khapoli – Pali & Mangaon. We covered around 120kms today and as planned we stayed over in Mangaon at night and to continued next morning for the fort.

19th Feb 2018 - So lest for Raigad fort early morning form Mangaon and from Mangaon fort is around 30kms which should take us around 1 hour to reach there. The reason we didn't wanted to cover this part of the route at night was that it was ghat section and at night it could be risky and after seeing the scenic beauty I was really glad we didn’t cover this at night. The road leading towards the fort was absolutely amazing. The houses there looked beautiful and life there looked peaceful, a life we can only imagine about in the city. On our way we saw many people carrying the orange flag because it was 19th February and it was Shivaji Jayanti (the day when Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was born) what I really couldn’t figure out was why were some people also kids running with the firelight though some old ritual I guess, if you guys know anything about this ritual then please let me know in the comments section below. The road towards the fort was beautiful, surrounded by trees and mountains, an example of pure scenic beauty; I love such roads which are surrounded by trees. No matter how many lanes city roads have I will always fall in love with this kind of roads.

We reached the starting point of the climb at around 8:30am; the fort rises 820 meters (2,700 ft) above the sea level and is located in the Sahyadri mountain range. There are approximately 1737 steps leading to the fort. Climbing stairs for such a long distance was not an easy task plus some uneven and big steps make it more difficult especially as we were not used to it. It’s not recommended to run as it will tire you down faster and also its very important to keep yourself hydrated so do carry extra water or you can buy from small shops on the way towards the fort also don’t forget to stopover in between to enjoy the magnificent view.

More than half way is covered once we reach the main pathway towards the fort known as "Maha Darwaja" (Huge Door). The Maha Darwaja has two huge walls on both sides of the door which are approximately 65–70 feet in height. From there the top of the fort is 600 ft higher. Once you enter through the Huge door you will have to buy tickets which costs Rs. 15 per person, and also you can see the map of the fort there, total it has 45 points to cover and we did manage to cover all the important points.

So as per the little guide we found during our climb, Historians said found out that during that time baby elephants were brought here in palanquin and they were bought up here and water from tank there was used to feed them hence its known as elephant tank, so when they grow little older approximately in 3 years the architect of this fort Mr Hiroji Indulkar used them to carry rocks for 11 years and it took them 14 years to build this fort.  

The fort also had another tank which was the main water reservoir for the fort known as Ganga Sagar tank. We have reached the entrance of the fort at around 10:30am which is known as Palanquin Gate or (Palki Darwaza) The convoy of the king and the king himself used the Palkhi Darwaja. To the right of Palkhi Darwaja, is a row of three dark and deep chambers out of which only two remain as the third one was destroyed during a bombarding. Historians believe that these were the granaries for the fort.

The interior of the main fort has the Rajsadar, Chamber of secret discussion, Khas baug and Queens’s palaces. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj seized the fort in 1656, then known as the fort of Rairi from Chandrarrao More. Shivaji Maharaj renovated and expanded the fort of Rairi and renamed it as Raigad. The main palace was constructed using wood, of which only the base pillars remain. It became the capital of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaja's Maratha kingdom. In 1818, the fort was bombarded and destroyed by cannons from the hill of Kalkai. And on 9 May 1818, as per the treaty, it was handed over to the British East India Company.

The main doorway for king’s Darbar known as Nagarkhana Darwaja and has the replica of the original throne which faces the main doorway. The Raigad Fort also has ruins of a market which was accessible to riders sitting on horses. It also has a cliff from which sentenced prisoners were thrown to their death known as Tak mak point we also visited Jagdishwar Mandir and behind this temple is Samadhi of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his loyal dog named Waghya.

There is also a secondary entrance, called the Mena Darwaja, was supposedly the private entrance for the royal ladies of the fort that leads to the queen's quarters.

While coming back we choose to come by Ropeway as it will be much easy and a faster way to reach down, We have to go through the Mena Darwaza to reach the Ropeway entrance the ticket cost was Rs. 175 per person, Ropeway here has 3 coaches and 1 coach can accommodate 4 persons, the view from here is a bit scary at but awesome if you have not tried this do try I am sure you will love it too and the best part is it takes only 5 minutes to reach down.  

So, guys, this was a short yet a historical journey towards an amazing route enjoyed the scenic beauty yet was disappointed knowing about the destruction of the fort. It’s really strange even when people know how much time it takes to build something yet wants to destroy in few moments.

Watch our full video of our entire journey below.