Ranikot Fort. Located about 30 km southwest of Sann, in the Kirthar Range, approximately 120 kms from Hyderabad Toll Plaza and 262 kms form Karachi. It is one of the largest forts in the world.
It has an approximate diameter of 9 km. Its walls are on the average 6 meters high and are made of gypsum and lime cut sandstone and total circumference is about 29 km. While originally constructed for bow and arrow warfare it was later expanded to withstand firearms.
It is reputed to be the largest unexplored fort in the world. The purpose of its construction and the reason for the choice of its location are still unknown.
3am – Left Karachi
5am – Breakfast near Toll Plaza, Hyderabad.
6am – Left Hyderabad Toll Plaza.
8.30am – Reached Ranikot
10.45am – Left Ranikot
2pm – Arrived Karachi.
Total Kms traveled 495.
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Ranikot is the most talismanic wonder of Sindh. Visible from five kilometers away its massive undulating walls twist and dip over the hills. With the circumference of more than twenty nine kilometers, its walls, built with dressed sandstone and reinforced with 45 bastions along the outer wall, of which 7 are rectangular and the remaining are round. All modified through the ages to accommodate the use of gunpowder, this perhaps makes it the largest fort in the world. Who constructed it first and why? Is an enigma yet to be resolved by researchers. Some historians attribute it to Arabs, built by Imran Bin Musa Barmaki, the Governor of Sindh in 836 A.D., some to Sassanians, and some to the Greeks or Romans and some to the Persians, and some even to the Great Wall of China! Though the prehistoric site of Amri (Aamri) is nearby, and fossils and animal skeletons are found inside the fort on the Lundi Hills, there is no trace of any old city inside the fort. The present structure doesn't appear to be 'prehistoric'. Some historians point to 17th century AD as its time of first construction but most agree that some of the present structure was constructed or reconstructed by Mir Karam Ali Khan Talpur and his brother Mir Murad Ali in 1812 AD at a cost of 1.2 million rupees (Sind Gazetteer, 677).
This enchanted fort is located in Lakki Mountains of the Kirthar range on the right side of the mighty River Indus at a distance of about 30 kilometers from the present day town of Sann. A mountainous ridge, 'Karo Takkar'(Black Hill), running north to south, forms its western boundary and the 'Lundi Hills' forms its eastern boundary. 'Mohan Nai', a rain-stream enters the fort from its rarely used western 'Mohan Gate', where it is guarded by a small fortification, changes its name to 'Reni' or 'Rani Nai' or rain-stream and gives the fort its name. Ranikot is thus the 'fort of a rain stream' - Rani. It runs through it, tumbles in a series of turquoise pools to irrigate fields and leaves the fort from its most used 'Sann Gate' on the eastern side. It then travels about 33 kilometers more to enter the Lion River - Indus.
Most of the twenty nine kilometers long wall is made of natural cliffs and barricades of mountainous rocks which at places rise as high as two thousand feet above sea level! Only about 8 km portions of its wall are man-made, built with yellow sandstone. This was first measured on foot by Badar Jamal Abro along with Syed Jalal Mehmud Shah and local guide Sadiq Gabol, Badar Abro has also written a book on the Fort. As one enters the fort, one can find hills, valleys, streams, ditches, ponds, pools, fossils, building structure, bastions, watchtowers, ammunition depots, fortresses - all inside the Ranikot, adding more to its beauty and mystery. A spring emerging from an underground water source near the Mohan Gate is named as 'Parryen jo Tarr' (the spring of fairies). According to a tale told by the local inhabitants, fairies come from far and wide on the Ponam Nights (full moon) to take bath at this spring near 'Karo Jabal'! Splashing sounds of water falling on the rocks can be heard at another spring, 'Waggun jo Tarr' or the Crocodile Spring, named so as crocodiles once lived there.
Within Ranikot, there are two more forts - Meeri and Shergarh fortresses. Meerikot takes its name from the word 'Mir' meaning top (for instance the top of a hill, chief of any baloch tribe, etc.). Both the main Ranikot and the inner Meerikot have similar entrances - curved, angulated with a safe tortuous path. "The bridge in front of Ranikot resembles to a smaller bridge in front of a fortress in Verona, Italy" writes Ishtiaq Ansari, the writer of 'Sindh ja koat aaein qillaa' (Forts and Fortresses of Sindh) and a member of Sindh Exploration and Adventure Society. From the military point of view, Meerikot is located at a very safe and central place in the very heart of the Ranikot with residential arrangements including a water-well. Talpur Mirs used Meerikot as their fortified residence. One can explore ruins of the court, harem, guest rooms, and soldiers quarters inside it. Its 1435 feet long wall has five bastions. Every structure in the Ranikot has its own uniqueness and beauty. Looking up from Meerikot one can find another fortified citadel - Shergarh (Abode of Lions) built with whitish stone. Though its location at 1480 feet above the sea level makes this fortress a unique structure, it also makes it equally difficult for supply of water, which can only be had from the brooks and rain streams, hundreds of feet below! The steep climb upto Shergarh gives a commanding view down over the whole fort and its entrance and exit points. On a clear day one can even see Indus, 37 kilometers away to the east.
Beside the Mohan Gate and the Sann Gate, there two more gates, rather pseudo gates. One is towards the side of ancient town of Amri. This 'gate' is called the 'Amri Gate'. Certainly it takes its name from the prehistoric ruins of Amri, but it must have taken this name much later than the times of Amri as the fort itself doesn't appears to be as old as the Amri itself. In fact there is a bridge over rain stream 'Toming Dhoro' exiting from the fort called 'Budhi Mori'. The breach in fort wall due to the river stream has been referred as a gate. Similarly, the Shahpir Gate to the south also appears to be a pseudo gate taking its name from a limestone rock with a rough shape of foot imprinted on it. The sacred footprint supposedly belongs to Hazrat Ali or some other religious personality and is venerated by locals. It seems to be a later breach in the fort wall instead of a formal gate because one can't find any bastion or watchtower or their remains at the site, needed to guard any formal entrance or exit points.
A mosque found in the fort appears to be a later modification of a watchtower. Scattered animal skeletons and prehistoric fossils can be found on the top of Lundi Hills. One of the three graveyards has about four hundred graves made of Chowkundi like sandstone with engraved motifs of sunflowers and peacocks. Whether we can call them as theriomorphic and phytomorphic motifs is an open question. Another one appears to be a graveyard of Arabs. The third one, about a mile away from the Sann Gate, had sixteen or seventeen graves earlier but now there are only four graves. The local inhabitants call it the Roman's graveyard.
The fort is notoriously deficient of shelters and shady places but the view of the terrain from the top of 'Shimla Hills' is not only attractive but mystifying too! "The size of Ranikot defies all reasons. It stands in the middle of nowhere, defending nothing" writes Isobel Shaw. So why was this fort built here in the desolate terrain of
