in-pass to cross similar to that near Adjunta.
The fortress, one of the oldest and strongest in India, is
considered as the most remarkable of its kind, not only in the
Deccan but in all India. It presents a most imposing aspect, and is
situated upon a peak of rock 600 feet high, which stands isolated in
a beautiful plain, and appears to have been separated from the
adjoining mountains by some violent natural convulsion. The
circumference of this rock amounts to about a mile. It is cut round
perpendicularly to a height of 130 feet and thirty feet below the
top of the moat by which it is surrounded, which cutting is equally
perpendicular, so that the whole height of the escarpment is 160
feet, and the rock, consequently, inaccessible. There is no pathway
leading to the fortress, and I was, therefore, extremely curious to
know by what means the summit was reached. In the side of the rock
itself was a very low iron door, which is only visible in time of
peace, as the ditch can be filled a foot above its level when
required. Torches were lighted, and I was carefully conducted
through narrow low passages, which led with numerous windings
upwards through the body of the rock. These passages were closed in
many places by massive iron gates. Some considerable distance above
the precipitous part of the rock, we again emerged into the open
air; narrow paths and steps, protected by strongly-fortified works,
led from this place to the highest point. The latter was somewhat
flattened, (140 feet in diameter), completely undermined, and so
contrived, that it could be heated red-hot. A cannon, twenty-three
feet long, was planted here.

At the foot of this fortress are scattered numerous ruins, which, I
was told, were the remains of a very important town; nothing is left
of it now except the fortified walls, three or four feet deep, which
must be passed to reach the peak of rock itself.

In the same plain, but near to the range of mountains, standing on a
separate elevation, is a considerably larger fortress than
Dowlutabad, but of far inferior strength.

The numerous fortresses, as well as the fortified towns, were, as I
here learned, the remnants of past times, when Hindostan was divided
into a great number of states, continually at war with each other.
The inhabitants of the towns and villages never went out unarmed;
they had spies continually on the watch; and to secure themselves
from sudden attacks, drove their herds