Kumbalgarh, the Unconquered Fort

Next day early morning we left from Mount Abu towards our journey to Udaipur. On the way we visited quite a few marvelous places. One among them is Kumbhalgarh.

The most important tourist attractions here are:

The Fort

Rana Kumbh built this massive fort in 15th century in the Aravali ranges. A few kilometers of zigzag road through deep ravines and thick forests leads one to this fort. This massive fort stretches across 36 kms of the Aravali Mountains and is 1100 m high from the sea level. This is surrounded by thirteen mountain peaks, guarded by seven great gates and seven ramparts, strengthened by rounded bastions and immense watchtowers. This mountain fortress has been through many battles and has remained un-conquered.

The fort has seven gates and the last gate leads one to the palace. The first one is Arait Pol, where you can trace the watch-tower and Other gates are Hulla Pol, Hanuman Pol, Ram Pol, Bhairava Pol, Paghra Pol, Top-khana Pol and Nimboo Pol.

The seven ramparts folded with one another with designed walls toughened by curved bastions and huge watch towers. The strong structure of walls of the Fort made it unbeatable till date. The hefty walls of the fort are broad enough to stand eight horses side by side.

There are many palaces, temples and gardens inside this huge fort complex. It is believed that there are not less than 360 temples inside the complex of the Fort. Amongst all of them, Shiva Temple is worth visiting that comprises a huge Shivalinga (Phallic form).
On top of the fort is the Badal Mahal Palace or the Palace of Cloud. It encloses beautiful rooms with pleasant color schemes of green, turquoise and white. This palace is very different when compared to rest of the raw and grim fortress. The palace was rebuilt by Rana Fateh Singh in the late 19th century. The legendary Maharana Pratap was born here.

The Wildlife Sanctuary

Sited in the flourishing green zone of Udaipur, Kumbalgarh is the only sanctuary of Rajasthan, where one can see one of the rarely found wolfs. This is one of the few parks that allow people on horseback. The best time to visit the reserve is from October to June.

We did not visit this as we had not planned for this.

From Kumbalgarh, we traveled to Udaipur, City of Lakes.

Distance: Kumbalgarh ---> Udaipur 64 kms

P.S: December is the month when lot of tourists land in Rajasthan. So if you really want all the arrangements to be done properly this has to be done before October end.

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