Gadgada Fort, an ancient military position in India that is very difficult to access

The Maratha Empire was a large confederation of states established in 1674 in the center of present-day India.

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When its first emperor, Shivaji, died around 1680, the Maratha Empire was protected by some 300 forts and an army of 90,000 soldiers. Many of these fortifications were located on mountains, which served as excellent observation posts. In the present-day state of Maharashtra in western India, there were once 264 forts. In some cases, the history of these ancient military positions has been virtually forgotten.

One such position was the triangular Gadgada Fort (also called Ghargad), located almost 10 kilometers east of Trimbak, about whose past very little is known. It is known to have been a lookout position located on a plateau 961 meters above sea level. Maratha soldiers had their own water reserves there, the ponds of which are still preserved today.

In 1818, the year of the fall of the Maratha Empire, Gadgada Fort was captured by a British Army force under Captain John Briggs after the fall of Trimbak. The fort had an easily accessible lower section and a wall with two gates at the top, as well as garrison houses. Today, hardly anything remains of its old buildings. This fort is rarely visited due to its difficult access, as you can see in this video posted by Aniruddha Patil a few months ago (if your Hindi language skills are as good as mine, I recommend turning on the English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

You can see some screenshots from this video here, which contains some impressive drone shots. Here we can see one that shows Gagdada Fort seen from above.

The staircase leading up to the fort. It's very reminiscent of the one that leads up to Cirith Ungol in Peter Jackson's film "The Return of the King," but at least from here you don't run the risk of encountering any Nazgûl.

The final part of the climb to the fort is the most risky. The video's protagonist had to do it equipped with a safety harness.

One of the two gates of the old fort at the top, surely the one in the best condition.