History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c15.43

v1.c15.43

The city stands on a high plateau, 2330 feet above sea-level. A wall with a dry ditch and glacis surrounds the city itself, and bastions rising at various points of the wall add to its defensive power. The fort or citadel, finished in 1432 and occupying the eastern face of the city, is of immense strength. Its wall is 4500 yards in circuit and 12 yards in height. Three separate ditches each 25 yards wide and 15 yards deep, cut in the solid rock, surround the citadel, which contains many palaces, mosques, Turkish baths, a mint, arsenal, magazine, and other public edifices built of trap but now in ruin. The only entrance is a zigzag passage from the southwest, protected by three gateways. On the bastions stood several guns, one of them being 23 feet long with a 19 inch bore. In the age before modern artillery, Bidar was rightly held to be impregnable to assault.