Pratapgad Fort
Hill fort near Mahabaleshwar, site of the legendary encounter between Shivaji Maharaj and Afzal Khan in 1659.
Pratapgad was built to hold ground, and within three years of its completion it did exactly that. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had the fort raised in 1656 under his engineer Moropant Trimbak Pingle, on a spur above the Par pass, to command the routes between the Nira and Koyna valleys and guard the approaches to the Konkan below.
On 10 November 1659 the fort gave its name to one of the decisive encounters of Shivaji Maharaj's early career. The Adilshahi general Afzal Khan had marched into the region with a far larger force; the two met for a parley below the fort, and Shivaji Maharaj killed him there. The Maratha force fell on the leaderless army, and the victory turned a regional challenge into a power the Deccan sultanates had to reckon with.
The fort is built on two levels. The lower fort holds the Bhavani temple, whose deity Shivaji Maharaj installed here; the upper Balekilla holds the Kedareshwar shrine and the strongest of the bastions. An equestrian statue of Shivaji Maharaj, unveiled in 1957, stands on the upper level. The climb is short by Sahyadri standards, and in monsoon the surrounding valleys turn spectacularly green.