Mirjan Fort

Mirjan Fort

Mirjan fort has become quite famous place after the renovation works done by the Central Archeological Department. The old fort which was almost near to extinct by the negligence of local and government has been abandoned for many years. But recent interest by the Archeological department has resulted in keeping of last remains of the fort.

To imagine the present state of this fort, only the outer boundary walls are present in this fort and other inner walls are destroyed for the search of some valuable goods or got affected by natural factors like heavy rain fall. I got to hear many things about this fort in childhood that there has been enormous wealth in this fort and being stolen by many and ran away from this place. Seven big wells present inside in this fort are worth seeing because it has stair case kind of steps so that one can reach till the bottom of well. After the renovation the steps to bottom of wells is being locked and can’t go till down.

The Mirjan Fort  is located on the west coast of the Uttara Kannada district in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The fort known for its architectural elegance was the location of several battles in the past. It is about 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) from the National Highway 17 and 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from Gokarna, the famous Hindu pilgrimage centre on the west coast of India.

According to the first historical version, Queen Chennabhairadevi of Gersoppa (under the Vijayanagara Empire) was initially credited with building the Mirjan Fort in the 16th century. She ruled for 54 years and also lived in the fort.During her reign, the port at Mirjan, which is 32 kilometres (20 mi) to the south east of Karwar, was used for shipping pepper, saltpetre and betel nut to Surat. Gersoppa, a district annexed to Bednur, was famous for the pepper exported from this region. Consequently, the Portuguese gave the epithet "Rani, the Pepper queen" to the Queen of Gersoppa

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Nearest Cities: Kumta,Ankola,Karwar

Distances from Mirjan Fort(Mirjan Kote) :

Kumta : 11 km

Sirsi : 61km

Karwar : 60 km

Ankola : 30 km

Images:

Image & Information Courtesy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirjan_Fort