Chitradurga Fort or Kallina kote and Windmills

Trip details
Distance From Bangalore	200 Kms from Bangalore and 132 kms from Tumkur
Type	Trekking - 17th Century Fort, Architecture and windmills
Height	Approx 0.5 km high
Difficulty level	Medium to High
Kids?	Yes, Kids 5+ years who can climb also enjoy this.
Hours needed	6 to 8 hours. There are plenty to see.
Best time to visit	Any month, except October and November when it will rain (as I heard from the locals here)
Local guides	On request, Charges approx. Rs.350/=
Stay options	Chitradurga (see below for list of options)
Food	Average food, see the stay options,  same place you can have food.
Nearby places	Vani vilas dam, Pillow lava near Maradihalli (maintained by Geological survey of India)
Other tips	·        Get the help of local guides who can explain and take you to places around. ·        There are plenty of places to see on all four directions. So start early and break during lunch. Again start after 3 noon, to see all the places. ·        On weekends, Indian Spiderman performs a demo of his skills on the fort walls. It is amazing to see his talent of climbing with bare hands.  Google for “Kothi Raja”. ·        There are plenty of Windmills around this area. ·        There is a shop inside the fort selling mineral water bottle and snacks, icecream. ·        Entry ticket is just Rs.5/= (only adults and not for kids) and separate charge for handycam. ·        Few places monkeys are there. So eat only in designated places. ·        As I always say, carry your own garbage bag and dispose in dust bin.

More on the Fort as we heard from the local guide

Chitradurga is also called "Kallina Kote" in Kannada. Kall means stone and Kotte means Fort in Kannada. They seem to have started to build this fort in 15th century.

You can see the cannon balls fired at the walls, but the walls were never damaged. See the photos below where it made an impression. 

It seemed this fort was extremely difficult for enemies to enter as there are hundreds of watch towers on all sides. Also the fort is constructed in such a way that, it is difficult to break through the gigantic wooden doors as there is a wall built directly opposite to the doors. i.e. S shaped pathway. This prevents the enemies from using a large wooden logs or elephants to break open the door. 

There are close to 18 main entrances in this fort. It assumed that, the whole of treasury i.e. gold coins and other silver items were stored beneath the temple idol. This temple is placed in the centre of this fort. From this place you can see the fort walls, rocky hills and watch towers on all the sides.

You might have read about forts in your history subject, but if you visit this place you will realize how amazing it is. There are many places where they made rain water harvesting at those early years in 15th century itself. You can see many water tanks. Many temples built inside. Multiple caves are there formed naturally between the rocks. Hidimbeshwara temple is main temple and oldest. 

When we visited, due to short fall of time and my kids were bit tired, we could spend only 3 hours inside. We did not get a chance to visit all the places. 

Near chitradurga, you can notice the windmills on surrounding hills. 

See below the photos.... 

Wiki has all the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitradurga_Fort

Photos we clicked

Seven headed snake in entrance on the wall

Click the above pic to read the contents fully

41 places listed in this map which you might want to see. Click the above pic to see it in big size

Water tank

Little above the centre of the photo, can you see the cannon ball fired and its impression ? 

See two holes made above the pillar for the gigantic big wooden door. Also see wall opposite to the door

Click the above pic to read the contents in bigger size 

Bombe means Toy, and this is the Bombe mantapa

Indian spiderman, very skilled climber. 

This amazing person by name Jyothi used to climb with his bare hands on these fort walls. Really amazing to see his skills. Search in Youtube for those videos.

Click the above pic to read the contents in bigger size photo

Can you see the small holes on top of the stone. Read the "cutting edge technology" image above

Way to Hidimbeshwara temple above the small hill you see on leftside

Now you know how they climbed up this pillar to light up the oil lamp above !

Seems they played holi those days in this place called Okalihonda

This is the treasury and placed in centre of this entire fort area surrounded by hills and watch towers.
They call it "Palegar office treasury" built with mud.

Can you see the small temple, this is where they stored all the treasury

Again see the rock, there is an impression. Cannon ball was fired. 

How they built with mud. Click the above pic to see in bigger size.

Water tank.....rain water harvesting

This is how they broke the rock refer "cutting edge technology"

This is the place the brave women killed all the enemies who came through the hole seen below.

It is believed that through this hole, enemies came in..... and got killed by the brave women

Detail on how this fort constructed with rain water harvesting........ 

I always wonder how this tree is grown to this size on bare rock first? Amazing ...where are you getting the water my dear tree?

Those days there were many games played and the above shows the details

View from the Hidimbeshwara temple

Opposite to Hidimbeshwara temple, there is a watch tower. You can climb to top to get a good view

Hotel Mayura Yatri Nivas dormitory room

AC rooms (in pink color). 1800 for double bed AC 

Canal made in front of the fort, filled with water and crocodiles to avoid entry of enemies

Windmills and the NH, behind me is the windmill, see the next photo