Raigad Fort

Raigad rises steeply out of the Sahyadris above the Konkan, and for the last six years of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's life it was the seat of the Maratha state. He took the hill, then known as Rairi, from the Mores of Javli in 1656, renamed it Raigad, and had it rebuilt as a capital rather than merely a stronghold. It was here, in June 1674, that he was crowned Chhatrapati.

What survives is the plan of a working capital. The climb passes through the Maha Darwaza, set deliberately between two bastions so that anyone approaching the doors could be fired on from both sides. Above it the plateau opens out: the twin rows of the Bazaar Peth, laid out so mounted traders could deal without dismounting; the Raj Sabha where the court sat; rock-cut reservoirs including Ganga Sagar that carried the garrison through the dry months; and the cliff edge at Takmak Tok with a long drop to the valley below.

Shivaji Maharaj died at Raigad in 1680 and his memorial stands before the Jagadishwar temple at the eastern end of the plateau. The fort fell to the Mughals in 1689 and passed to the British in 1818. Today it is reached either by roughly 1,450 stone steps or by a four-minute ropeway, and the plateau is broad and level enough that most of a day is well spent up there.