Aligarh Fort (''Aligarh Qila'') is located in the patwari nagla city of

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Allygarh, and Kol) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the cap ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. It is also called "Aligarh Qila". Most part of it is damaged and only ruins remain. The

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

is situated near the

Grand Trunk Road The Grand Trunk Road (formerly known as Uttarapath, Sarak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sarak, and Long Walk) is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years it has linked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. ...

and consists of a regular polygon surrounded by a very broad and deep ditch.

History

The fort was built during the time of Ibrahim Lodi by Muhammad, son of Umar the governor of Kol (Aligarh city is subset of this greater set) in 1524–25. Sabit Khan, who was the governor of this region during the time of Farrukh Siyar and Muhammad Shah, rebuilt the fort.History of Aligarh
/ref> It became a fortress of great importance under Madhavrao I Scindia in 1759; it was the depot where he drilled and organized his battalions in European fashion with the aid of French soldier

Benoît de Boigne Benoît Leborgne (24 March 175121 June 1830), better known as Count Benoît de Boigne or General Count de Boigne, was a military adventurer from the Duchy of Savoy, who made his fortune and name in India with the Marathas. He was also named presid ...

. During the

Battle of Ally Ghur The siege of Aligarh also known as the Battle of Aligarh was fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company during the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) at Aligarh, India. Aligarh Fort, one of the strongest forts ...

in 1803, it was captured from the

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

s under the leadership of a French officer Perron by Lord Gerard Lake's

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

army. After that it was strengthened and improved. In the rebellion of 1857 the troops stationed at Aligarh mutinied, but abstained from murdering their officers, who, with the other residents and ladies and children, succeeded in reaching Hathras. The fort is built on a small rise north of the

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

at Barouli Road. It has steep ravines, over 30 feet high, on every side, and bastions in every angle on the walls. Currently, Aligarh fort is under the care of

as a protected site of Archeological Survey of India. The university uses part of the internal area fort as location for its department of Botany. The fort has been the seat of many governors and other rulers of this land, including Sabit Khan,

Maharaja Surajmal Suraj Mal (13 February 1707 – 25 December 1763) was a Jat ruler of Bharatpur in present-day state of Rajasthan. Under him, the Jat rule covered the present-day districts of Agra, Aligarh, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Etawa, Hathras, Mainpuri, ...

in 1753 and mentioned

Madhavrao Scindia Madhavrao Jivajirao Scindia (10 March 1945 – 30 September 2001) was an Indian politician and a minister in the Government of India. He was a member of the Indian National Congress party. Scindia was the son of Jiwajirao Scindia, the last rul ...

in 1759. The fort was expanded three times in 1753 by lieutenant Banasaur, commanding officer of contemporary ruler

, to include a basement, an explosives warehouse and an air cooled kitchen. Aligarh fort, as it stands today, is the work of the French engineers under the control of de Boigne and Perron. Presently, the fort houses a small primary school within its premises. On its front side the new building of the Dawakhana Tibya college, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh is situated. On its back side there is the Street Number 1 of the Fort Enclave (a posh colony of the university teachers). The back side ( south) of the fort is now identified by the office ( Arafaat, Street Number-1 Fort Enclave) of the National Society for Educational Empowerment of the Masses ( NASEEM) an NGO working particularly for Have-not sections of the locality. To protect the remains of this historic fort its out-boundaries were constructed s per the 100 m rule of the (ASI)by the Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh during the tenure of Mr. Mahmoodurrahman the vice chancellor of the varsity.

References

{{Aligarh division topics Botanical gardens in India Forts in Uttar Pradesh Aligarh Muslim University Conflicts in 1803 Ally Ghur 1803 Ally Ghur 1803 Buildings and structures in Aligarh

History

See also

References