(Photos) The sixth gate, Lal Darwaza, Kalinjar Fort

The sixth gate, Lal Darwaza, Kalinjar Fort

Pen-and-ink drawing of a gateway of the fortress at Kalinjar by an unknown artist c.1840.Kalinjar is possibly one of the oldest hill forts in India, occupying a remote site on the last spur of the Vindhya Mountains above the Gangetic Valley, a plateau 375 m (1,230 feet) high. The site was originally a revered hill shrine later fortified and occupied by successive generations of invaders. It was known to have been a stronghold of the Chandellas from the 9th to the 12th centuries. In 1023 Mahmud of Ghazni attempted to seize the fortress but failed. In 1202 Qutb-ud-din Aybak took the fort and destroyed the temples, but Muslim power over the area remained unconsolidated until the rise of the Mughal Empire.

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