Daulatabad Fort

On the way to the caves we stopped for a bite to eat. When we sat down, we noticed a GIGANTIC HILLSIDE FORTRESS right behind our heads. Turns out this was a big deal, Andy was dying to go conquer the fort, but I wanted to get to Ellora so we could have the day. Since it was only 10:00 we decided to take a quick look.

The first thing we saw were the monkeys- more monkeys. While I had been pretty tired of the monkeys up in Darjeeling it had been almost a full week since I had seen monkeys, so I was willing to enjoy them. Turns out these were totally different monkeys, much less furry, little black faces, and much longer arms, legs, and tails. They looked more like jungle monkeys (which they were), than mountain monkeys. They were much less aggressive, but since they were scampering around on the tops of the ruins we still had to be careful, because they would sometimes knock some of the rock loose.

Once we went inside the walls, we realized there were a TON of ruins, and another big set up walls further up the hill. It took about an hour to get to the top, and that was after passing through the third set of walls. There were temples, jails, a recovered sculpture park, everything. It had also been boht Hindu and Muslim, so there was a big minar (like a minaret, but much bigger).

I guess a lot of people like to have their picture taken with Westerners, we got this a lot. This is my new friend: Its weird to roll into some place to check out all of these huge tourist sites, and then all of a sudden be the tourist attraction. But everyone was super nice, and just seemed interested in meeting people. I think this girl was on her honeymoon, but we had a few communication issues. Another lady came up to me while I had my glasses off, and not only could I not understand her, I also couldn't see a thing, I can't imagine what she thought of me.

Every time you would climb up a set of ruins there would be another set around the corner. I stopped at a landing waiting for Andy who was taking pictures below, and the local soccer team must have thought I didn't realize there was more. Several of the guys got worried, and started shouting "Madam, Madam! Chello Madam!!!" as they jogged up the steps in front of me. This means, "come on, or lets go" in Marathi. Either that, or they thought I was about to pass out after those 8,000 steps I just climbed, and would for sure never make it to the top without their good-natured support.

How anyone ever took over this fort I will never know. It had double moats, a cave full of bats was the only way to get to the very top, and cannons all over the place. And monkeys. Once we got to the top we realized that it wasn’t just a fort, it had been a huge town, and you could see the walls going out for miles in three different directions. I don't know how many people used to live here, but it must have been in the tens or hundreds of thousands. As we were driving to and back from the caves we still saw more ruins of this for about another 10 minutes in each direction.

After a very fast hike to the top and around we rushed back down to go to the caves. Andy was absolutely right though, this was well worth the detour.