Manjarabad fort, Sakleshpur
This is a long pending post from the Sakleshpur trip. One of the things to do, while you are in the neighborhood is to visit the Manjarabad ford, which is located just outside of Sakleshpur on National Highway 48. The fort was built by Tippu Sultan as a strategic defensive location
It is also believed that he constructed a tunnel from this fort to another fort in Srirangapattana near Mysore. The guides there even showed us the closed doors to this tunnel, almost right at the center inside the fort. Apparently, it had to sealed off as the tunnel had many reptiles.
While I expected the fort to look like, well, a fort, this one is very different – it is almost just an excuse to get up there to enjoy the beautiful views of the beautiful western ghats.
After climbing a few hundred steps up to the fort, you arrive at the arched entrance-ways, the architecture style of which is Islamic. It is well kept and very clean. The steps to climb up are also well laid and even the elderly should not find it too strenuous.
It is so green inside the fort, what with the entire insides filled with grassy contoured ground, you forget that it is a fort you are visiting. Only the binding fort walls are fort-like.
The archways you see in the following picture are entrances to the semi-open chambers. The chambers inside have hardly any height, so I am guessing they were just used to sleep in.
A walk along the fort wall is probably the best activity to do – to enjoy the beautiful landscape that spreads out in all directions from the fort. Here’re a couple of shots from inside the little minarets at the fort. Notice below is another minaret seen through the slit.
In the first picture in this post, the man is standing on a minaret.
My next post is going to be about how this fort brought out the stark difference in my children’s personalities. Just a series of pics and you will see the starkness. 
Will follow it up soon…. | Posted now - Read here.
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