Daulatabad Fort

You enter at the floor of the plain, climb a few steps to what must have been the outer keep as walls surround it. Past an old temple and a slightly newer mosque built to commemorate some victory. That was after handing out tickets over at the first gate - giant wooden doors complete with iron spikes to keep the elephants from crashing the door down. The path from there becomes a series of steep stone steps and right angled turns. They were not going to make it easy to get into this fort. After we passed through another set of double doors and crossed a mostly dry moat, me entered a small courtyard with a sign pointing to the dark tunnel. Dark tunnel indeed! Thank goodness for the flashlights on our phones. I am sure that this tunnel/staircase they carved out of the rock would have been pitch black without them. Even with the small light it was tricky enough to turn the correct corners and not to go into an empty side room filled with bats. I imagine it was a remarkably effective defense mechanism. When we got out of that tunnel and the slightly better lit one after it, I believe we were on the fourth (?) level of the fortification. From there you could look out over the walls to a scenery that looked remarkably like the American Southwest. You could also look over the rather steep walls hewn into the rock. Still a few more levels to go up. The next took us to a white building which I suspect was the main habitation of the fort. It had a loggia with arches that looked out over the valley. The school group that followed us up meant we didn't dwell. Another staircase around the corner led us up almost to the top. Another leveled plateau with a few remnants of building there. A single stone structure stood in the center - all that remained of our quest to make it all the way to the top. Of course you have to walk around to the backside to find the stairs, then just two short flights (scarily not against a wall this time) lead us to the penultimate height of the Daulatabad Fort to find the six meter cannon that laid there. There was definitely quite a view from the top. A few minutes to soak it in and snap a few photos then there was nothing to do but head back down - a much more painful part of the adventure for your joints. Down all those steep stairs, past the monkeys chilling in the trees, through the lighter tunnel (what you mean we could have avoided the dark one?) and on down past fragments of decoration that hinted at how the fort used to be carved. Our exploration was finished after one photo with our tuktuk driver for his album.