I drove down to Kumbalgarh from Udaipur. The fort has the second longest wall in the world after The Great Wall of China and it’s also visible from space.
First off the route was very beautiful.It had some streams and other lakes. It was a beautiful rural ride.
The first thing you will notice is the monster size walls of the fort. They are super wide and they have a huge bulged bottom. It’s enormous and weird. They look like an inflated baloon made of stone.
The fort was by by Rana Khumba and it was built in just 15 years. Rana Khumba is said to be 8-9 feet in height (even I find it hard to believe). There is a shiva temple (Neelakanta Mahadeo temple) in the fort and the Shivlinga is around 4 feet high. It is said that he did the Abhisheka of the Shivlinga sitting down on the floor. That’s how tall he was.
The palace of the King Rana Khumba is at the top of the fort. The way to the palace is of extremely steep (almost 70 degrees steep) hairpin bends. It’s a task to climb. It is said that it was built this way to make it difficult for the enemy to climb.
I heard a similar story while walking around City Palace in Udaipur. The passages b/w rooms in the Palace is extremely narrow. The reason is said that it will be difficult for the enemy to navigate and they can kill the enemy easily.
I wondered how logical this strategy is. Fearing the day when the enemy would come, you make your day to day difficult. You walk through narrow passages or steep pathways to reach your palace and room. May the the cost to benefit ratio was worth it during that time.
Another thing that was striking was that, it felt like the fort is built without any foundation. Like it’s just rising from the rocks. I wondered how it’s even possible. But it definitely looks like that.
The walls of the fort is not only long but also wide. It is wide enough to have four horses run together. It was 100 feet wide and 36km long. That’s the second largest wall in the world.
Another interesting fact was that the fort was built on a hill surrounded by other hills. So from far, it’s visible. But when you come close it’s not visible as other hills are covering it. It is also said that it gave clear visibility of any enemy coming to attack too. The Chittorgarh fort had a different strategy. It had plains of more than 30km with clear view around the fort. But history has it that the Kumbhalgarh strategy worked better as it was never completely captured by the Mughals. Chittorgarh on the other hand was captured thrice.
All said, I loved the Chittorgarh fort a lot more better than Kumbhalgarh. Kumbhalgarh looked more safe but Chittorgarh was more beautiful.
Endless thoughts 