Architecture
Tughluqabad still consists of remarkable, massive stone fortifications that surround the irregular ground plan of the city. The sloping rubble-filled city walls, a typical feature of monuments of the Tughluq dynasty, are between 10 and 15 meters high, topped by battlemented parapets and strengthened by circular bastions of up to two stories height. The city is supposed to once have had as many as 52 gates of which only 13 remain today. The fortified city contained seven rainwater tanks.
Tughluqabad is divided into three parts;
- 1) the wider city area with houses built along a rectangular grid between its gates
- 2) the citadel with a tower at its highest point known as Bijai-Mandal and the remains of several halls and a long underground passage
- 3) the adjacent palace area containing the royal residences. A long underground passage below the tower still remains.
Today most of the city is inaccessible due to dense thorny vegetation. An ever increasing part of the former city area is occupied by modern settlement, especially in the vicinity of its lakes.
South of Tughluqabad was a vast artificial water reservoir within the fortified outpost of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq's Tomb. This well preserved mausoleum remains connected to the fort by an elevated causeway that still stands today.
Well visible in the southeast are the remains of the Fortress of 'Adilabad, built years later in a similar style.
Read more about this topic: Tughlaqabad Fort
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