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 195 ...

. It is also called "Aligarh Qila". Most part of it is damaged and only ruins remain. The fort is situated near the Grand Trunk Road 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 Ibrahim Khan Lodi (or Lodhi) (Pashto: ابراهیم خان لودي), (1480 – 21 April 1526) was the last Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, who became Sultan in 1517 after the death of his father Sikandar Khan Lodi. He was the last ruler of th ...

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 French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

soldier Benoît de Boigne. During the Battle of Ally Ghur 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 a ...

s under the leadership of a French officer Perron by Lord Gerard Lake's British 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 in 1753 and mentioned Madhavrao Scindia in 1759. The fort was expanded three times in 1753 by lieutenant Banasaur, commanding officer of contemporary ruler Maharaja Surajmal, 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) S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...

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