History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c74.s7.3

v5.c74.s7.3

The strongest and highest of the peaks is the western one, called *Rajgiri* (or Great Mountain in Orme's plan), its top standing 800 feet above the plain below and 400 feet in an almost sheer ascent above the rest of the ridge......The only path to Rajgiri, "a steep and narrow way, leads from the lower fort below, from the south-west, through gates in three lines of loopholed walls built one above another on the ridge across the road, and at length scales a mass of rock the top of which is nearly level with the summit of the citadel. But at this point, on the north side of the bluff, a great natural chasm, some 24 feet wide and 50 feet deep, separates this mass of rock from the topmost terrace of Rajgiri. This chasm, the former owners (agents of the Vijaynagar empire) had artificially lengthened and widened, and they had made the only entrance to the citadel pass across a narrow wooded bridge thrown over it, the further end of the bridge leading to a stone gate commanded by more embrasures and loopholes. Orme says that this point could be held by ten men against ten thousand." [S. Arcot Dist. Gazetteer, i. 347-348; also Manual, 413].