Traveller at heart: Trip to Murud Janjira

We started our journey at about 6.30 am from ghatkopar. Traffic was heavy. We had our morning breakfast at Desai food stall with poha, vada pav tea & kharwas.

After about 2 and a half hour drive through the busy and small lanes of Raigad, we got a awesome scenic view of the Arabian sea & janjira fort. We were compelled to stop our vehicle and enjoy the natural beauty.

Our next halt was at the small village named Rajapuri from where we got a boat to reach Janjira fort. Janjira for was seen quite near to the shore from this place. We took tickets and boarded one of the boat. We were amazed to see that these boats move with the help of wind. We had a environment like the one seen in movie 'swades' except majority of travellers were tourist.

As the boat started its voyage, we were given some information about the janjira fort- about its date of creation, emperors ruled, its importance in history. It took us about 15- 20 mins to reach the fort. One thing the person mentioned was about the entry gate. You cannot identify the entry gate of the fort until you are very close to the door. The main gate of the fort faces Rajapuri on the shore is disguising, hidden and very huge. We were told that around 100-150 people can enter together through this gate.

Beware of the boatmen's monopoly. They will compel you take a guide. Hire a guide only if required. This massive structure was constructed by siddhis in the 12th century. Murud was the capital of the Siddis of Janjira. The only fort in Maharashtra which was not captured, although the British, the Portuguese, the Dutch tried attacking the city. The Maratha King Shivaji tried to dominate the fortress almost six times but failed in every attempt.It has a huge door which was open only when the ruler used to come.For others, there is a small door like opening which was used.

Inside the fort, we could see the 3rd largest cannon of India which could fire upto a distance of 10 Km.

In all there are about 122 cannons inside this fort out of which 3 are named. One of the canon has a structure of cow head in front of it, hence named gau-mukh

This fort is spread over 22 acres of land, it took 22 years to completely build this fort, the total number of bastions in the fort is 22, the total number of steps after alighting from boat to the inside of fort is 22. This was kept to remember son of the ruler siddhi who was killed in the age of 22.
Walking ahead all we could see were the ruined structures of the fort.

We were shown a underground tunnel which was build as a hidden path. This tunnel was constructed underneath the sea with a space where 2 person can walk. Unfortunately, both the ends were sealed by the Indian Archaeological department, hence we could go only till 14 steps after that concrete walls were seen.

The interesting part of this fort is that, all the structures built here were built from the stones got after digging for pond. So, there are 2 sweet water ponds which seem as a miracle to get in midst of Arabian sea.
All structure were built with a mixture of jaggery, salt, lead and Lime(chuna). And thats the reason this structure has withstand lashing waves without any structural impact for the last 950 years.

There is a small gate towards the open sea for to escape from the enemies. This had a door built from stone & was always closed. hence no one could identify it as a door. When seen from outside, it was just another wall of the fort..