2022
Hello LG and Moderators,
Welcome to my post!
Today I am going to take you to a detailed tour of My city -Gwalior fort. So, Tight your seat belt and ready for flight to my city.
Introduction :- Gwalior is called the City of Music. Gwalior is rich in historical aspects and a gem for history lovers.
It is the part of great events occurs in history of India. Gwalior is made by Joining three village named as Kampoo, Morar and 34 battalion (now called as Thatipur). Why I am calling it a city of Music?
In history, This city is known as Gwalapore or Gwalapur. So the word 'Gwala' is sanskrit translation of word Singer and 'pore/pur' is taken called for place or city or area. Yes, same as Singapore or Barrackpore. So id we comined it is named as City of Singer. Now, Today its name is modified to Gwalior.
Tansen, the royal Musician of The great emperor Jalal-ud-din Akbar ( grand father of Shah jahan who built Taj Mahal) is born in Gwalior that,s why it is known as City of Music.
The Famous tourist places in Gwalior is Gwalior Fort - Gibraltar of India, Jai Vilas Place, Tansen Tomb, Gwalior Zoo, Bhateshwar temples and Sun temple.
Now I will start from the most tourist visited place Gwalior fort
Gwalior fort :-
The fort is exist since 6th century as per the Wikipedia but no any actual fact proves that. Gwalior fort is one of the biggest fort in India cover across 2 sq.km. area. Gwalior fort has separate buildings Named as Man singh palace, Vikram palace, Teli ka Mandir, Sahastra Bahu Mandir and A GuruDwara. It two entrance one called as Urvai Gate and second called as Hazira Gate.
Raja Man Singh Tomar is used to live in this fort in 10th century. Raja Man singh has married to 8 queens. At that time, King married to more than one queen to make his family big enough to rule the complete empire. King always hire his own sons to sit on the biggest post in the empire.
Interesting story :- One of Queen Named as Mrignayani (nick name Gujri) is most beautiful queen among the eight queens. When King ask her to marry her, She demanded to king that she will use water of river near to his place for drink or bath because She believes that makes her so beautiful. Since, the fort is built on a Hill it is impossible to bring water to the fort. So, King built a separate Fort or Mahal for her in the Ground level and bring river near to her fort. So, when you visit this fort you can see the Gujri Mahal of her from above also visit if you want.
The building shown you in the photo is basically Man singh place where the king lives. Inside man singh place there is Sleeping Room, Bathroom, Play room for queens, Celebration room, Music room, Library and many more ancient art is situated. Since, the king is rajput there queen cannot show their face to any other Man so there is separate passage and rooms for queen to watch music, dance, and read books. You can also se each room has 7 windows from where the queen use to see the cultural activities happening in the fort without being seen by others.
Interesting Facts :-
1. There is a room in the Mansingh palace where all the entrance doors are built in small size because when the fort invaded by enemy all the queens hide in that room with the guards. When enemy soldier try to enter in the room he need to bend, and as he enter his head through the doors instantly guard hiding behind the doors cut his head. Also these doors are covered with curtains at that so enemy cant see what is behind the doors. Really a smart move by the king.
2. There is very ancient cooling system inside man singh palace. Yes, right cooling system at that time. The room where king use to sit, have holes on the walls. So what they do, they attach a shaft half inside the room half outside the fort. Outside part of the shaft had a turbine shape structure attached to it and inside shaft had fan shaped structure attached to it. Since, Fort is at a height strong wind blows around it which result in the movement of Turbine and fan. Also fan is enclosed in box shape window so they fill water inside the box which make Air more cooler. Technology at that time.
3. There is a secret tunnel inside the fort which leads to the nearby cities such as Jhansi, Agra etc. This tunnel is used by Royal family member to escape safely when they are invaded.
4. The size of fort is that much huge that tourist lost their way back to entrance sometime. So, they use Chalk for marking their way back. Some of the tourist stuck in the fort for a complete day so authority decided to close 3/4th part of the place for tourist.
Above photo show you the entrance gate of Gwalior fort. You can see the beautiful art done on the rocks in the top of the gate. Kings use to enter these gates by riding Elephant thats why they built gates huge. Also you can see the Blue colour paint on some portion of the gate. It is original colour which is done by the king at that time. You can see that it is still not faded even after almost 1000 years of built show how quality colour is used at that time. All the design on the gate have its own story that even I dont remember.
In the above photo, there are rounded tomb on every pillar of fort except the Middle one because these pillar has been destroyed by Britishers firing canon. A century back britishers invaded in India and they start to attack on every fort of India. Complete pillar had been destroyed at that time But after india got independence they rebuilt the pillar to replicate the actual fort in proper way.
There are much more story related to this fort, which you will only know by visiting this place.
How to reach :- Gwalior is 300 kms from the Capital city of India New Delhi You can reach this city by ths following ways ;-
1. By Flight - You can take a direct flight from New Delhi to Gwalior which will cost you around 50-100 USD and it takes 45 min - 1 hour to reach Gwalior.
2. By train - train is the best option to come to Gwalior there are more than 20 train schedule from New Delhi to Gwalior which will cost you from 3 USD to 10 USD depends on which class you choose to travel and it will take around 5 hours of travel.
3. By Bus - Number of buses is schedule from New Delhi to Gwalior which will cost you 7 to 10 USD and takes total time of 8 hours to reach Gwalior.
Tips to be remembered when travelling to Gwalior:-
1. Always use Apps or website to book taxi in Gwalior. If you are not aware of actual fare you will end up giving double fare. So, I suggest you to use apps or consult with locals for the fare to the place.
2. Avoid to come to Gwalior in Summer season because temperature can goes more than 45 degrees centigrade.
I hope you find this place interesting and will plan to visit this place. If you have any query feel free to ask me. Happy to help
Thanks and Bye till next post.
