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Sindhudurg Fort:
This is among the last of the big forts in the chain almost 65 forts(small and big- ranging from North to South) that Chhatrapati Shivaji built along the coast of Maharashtra. The fort sprawling over 45 acres was built in record time of 3 years (1664 to 1667). This was also the most turbulent time of Shivaji’s life, while construction of fort started on 25th Nov 1664, in May 1666 he was put under house arrest at Agra by Mughal King Auranazeb. In his absence his mother Jijabai oversaw construction.
There are 42 bastions to the fort along the boundary wall. The wall is built with Mixture of jaggery, lime, udad dal and molten lead. It is so strong that after facing strong waves for centuries they are still intact. There are three sweet water reservoirs namely Dhudhbaon, Dahibaon and Sakharbaon (baon means well in Konkani). Besides there are temples of Bhawani, Mahadev(Shiva), Mahapurush and Shivarajeshwar. Shivarajeshwar is the temple of Shivaji, built by his son Rajaram. This is also the only place where palm and foot print of Shivaji, taken in lime mortar and preserved. These were taken when he came to visit the fort after its completion.
In front of the Mahadev temple is a small well and apparently there is a secret tunnel, which goes few Kilometers far under the sea. It was used as rescue route in times of trouble. You can see the opening in the picture but exactly where it leads to is not exactly known as excavation is yet to be done.
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