The Lonely Gateway - Ahilya Fort Maheshwar, MP

You don't always dress up to look good. But when you do the weather is always messed up! It was a bright sunny day in the winters when we happen to visit a city in Madhya Pradesh by the name Maheshwar.

About the city...

Maheshwar is a city in Khargone district in Madhya Pradesh. It is about 90 km south from Indore and about 10 km east of Agra-Mumbai Highway.
Reaching there by road is the best means and if you possess your own vehicle in the arsenal, then no one can stop you form winning today. This place has a fort by the name of Ahilya Fort or Maheshwar Fort (commonly known) which happens to be a major attraction for tourists, explorers & travelers. 

A little about the Ahilya Fort...

The fort is right on the banks of Narmada River which gives it a beautiful look and a pleasant place to spend time. This fort has a very rich cultural significance as it is said to have built by Emperor Akbar in 16th century. This fort was taken over by Malhar Rao Holkar in 18th Century. In 1760, when Ahilya Bai Holkar came to power, she shifted the capital from Indore to Maheshwar - hence the name!

PS: You'll find bunch of Baboons (langoor) in the fort. Don't panic, they make a good subject for photography! 

Our visit...

We heard about this from a friend of mine who is from Khargone itself. We left for Maheshwar from Khargone on 18th Jan'17 morning. Travelling by our own car it took us around one hour to reach there. This place is filled with temples. From the moment you enter the city you'll feel the aura of indian culture, ancient traditions and architectural extravagance. 

We happen to go straight for the Ahilya Fort. There are facilities for accommodations and pretty decent restaurants within the fort. To my surprise, there were foreigners too! It gave me a glimpse how popular this gateway actually is.

As we enter, there stood a huge statue of Ahilya Bai Holkar carrying a shiv ling. The entire fort still appears to have built only few years back instead of few centuries ago. You'll find few spots where its written "photography is prohibited". But I noticed people caring less about it and clicking selfies like there is no tomorrow. To my surprise, even the guards did not raise any eye brows to this and peacefully watched them clicking photographs. Well, may be they stopped imposing ban on photography but never removed the boards! So you can click photos, they don't mind.

We came across a big temple inside the fort. The temple was well built, with a rather careful and complex architecture with a huge dome at the top. There is another small temple situated exactly in front of the other. This small temple happens to be in the middle of an open space within the vicinity. 

Right next to this temple complex was a gate which opens to the bank of Narmada River. The stretch is a little more than half a kilometre long. Even on that stretch you'll find few small temples. Temples are almost everywhere!

This place was filled with tourists and the facilities were adequate. There were boat rides, food joints and rosary (mala) to buy from vendors. You can buy about 5-7 of them in 200 rupees if you can negotiate well. If you don't negotiate then you'll end up buying one for the 200 rupees. The boat rides costs around 200 - 500 rupees. 

We stayed there for an hour or so clicking photographs and having snacks before we left that place. We went to Labbos Cafe for lunch which is one of restaurants within the fort. It is situated right next to the main entrance of the fort. We were attracted by its ambience and the presence of foreign crowd caught our instincts that it has to be good. The restaurant's white walls are covered with green plants with flowers of different colors. It gave us the impression of the ancient european architecture. May be this was built while India was under British rule. 

The food was good. We had aloo parantha, aloo chat and a sandwich. It is not very expensive, especially if you are from Mumbai, you'll find this absolutely Ok. They also happen to have rooms to stay for tourists. The rates were slightly on the higher side comparing to the city where it is located and overall rates of other hotels around in that area. 

We left Maheshwar in the afternoon!

All in all it was a pleasant experience. If you are a traveler and plan to visit Indore or go by Agra-Mumbai National Highway, and have a day's (or half a day) time to spare then exploring this gateway is totally worth it.