Discovering the Gibraltar of the East

We went to Raigad and were pleasantly surprised to find roads without many potholes, unlike our last encounter with it. It was still a good 3 hour ride for just over 60 miles. Flowers and plants on the way:

Raigad became the capital of the Maratha Empire in 1674. It is separated from the rest of the Sahyadri mountain range by two rivers, making it difficult to conquer. It was called the ‘Gibraltar of the East’ by British colonialists and resisted their attacks for over a century.

The fort has many reservoirs (one of which is pictured here) and a market where men could shop sitting on their horses (stairs were built into the buildings for this).

Baby elephants were brought in palanquins and raised in the fort since ascending the fort was a challenging task due to the difficult terrain.

One can climb 1400 stairs to the top or take the rope-way instead. We climbed the first 200, gave in and went to the rope-way. All in all, it was a nice one day spent.