Sunday, March 31, 2013

Thrilling Harihar fort


The district of Nashik (Maharashtra) is very well known for the forts, especially mountain forts. The glory of Nashik district lies in the natural forts. These forts were created in various monarchies as well as empires which ruled the ancient and medieval Maharashtra. Very few forts of Nashik are well known to the general citizens even the citizens of this district too. One of the well known forts of Nashik is Harihar fort, which is situated in Trimbakeshwar taluka.

Harihar Fort from Base
 I have seen this fort for the first time when I visited the Bramhagiri or Trimbak gad. It is well known place for the bhakts of lord Shiva. Harihar is situated back of the Trimkakeshwar mountains. I saw this place from the top of the trimbak fort, when I visited there. I searched the information about the fort from Internet also. There are many trekkers and bloggers who has wrote about this fort in Marathi. So I got the exact idea about it. As it was a summer, we started traveling early in the morning at 6 am from Nashik city. Harihar is nearly 15 kilometers away from the city of Trimbakeshwar. We have to go through Javhar road of Trimbakeshwar. On this road, nearly three kilometers away we got a board showing sign of “Dugarwadi Waterfalls”. Dugarwadi is very well known waterfall of Nashik. It is nearly 7 kilometers away from Javhar road. After leaving Sapegaon behind we traveled about 10 kilometers on the road. It is very beautiful and greeny though it was the summer season. I thought of rainy season, how beautiful it would be looking! After crossing two beautiful hills road, we reached to the Harihar fort. The Nirgudpada is the village at the base of Harihar fort. We reached there nearly at 8 am and started walking towards the fort. It looked like very high hills fort from this side. We have taken the help of nearby villagers to find the path towards the steps of the fort. After walking and finding the ways towards the fort we reached the basement of the steps. The steps of the forts are created directly carving the rocks of it. But, it is very difficult to climb as general though these steps. We need to use our hands to catch every step to climb it! Steps are created nearly at fifty percent region of the fort. We used our hands to climb the fort's steps. The work is very creative. After climbing nearly 50 steps we reached at the main door of the fort. It is still very good in position. There is very windy atmosphere near the main door or Mahadarwaza. The rocks again carved to create the way after this door. We have to lean down to cross this road. It is a thrilling experience! After this road again the rock carved steps are created. The architecture of these steps are similar to the previous one. Climbing these steps is very very thrilling. We have to take care while climbing through these steps. We got one tunnel at the top of all these steps and finally the top door of the fort. There is no any step which is created by putting rocks from outside! 
 
I am at the start of the steps
 The top of the fort is a good plateau. Two temples are created here. Only debris can be seen of the top of Harihar fort. We can see Trimbak fort, Bhaskar Gad fort and Utwad fort for here. In the summer season also the complete area nearby the fort looks very greenish. Rainy season would be very much interesting for this fort. 
 
Bhaskar Gad from Harihar fort
 If you want to see a good place to make your day thrilling and beautiful, you must visit this place at least once!

Steps of the fort (But you don't need helmet!!!)

Tunnel after the steps

Berry's the base of the Harihar fort.

Greeny roads in the summer.

Top of the Harihar fort.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Tushar, i am in planing of Trek to this fort...is this possible to complete trek in one day or need 2 days from pune.

    Thanks,
    SACHIN

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice blog! Helped me plan my trek to Harihar :-)
    Keep blogging!

    ReplyDelete

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