Bhalki Fort

Bhalki Fort stands in the town of Bhalki, a short drive from Bidar. Locally called the Gadi, from the Marathi word for a fortress, it covers about five acres, and its walls, roughly seven metres high, were raised from black stone quarried in the area and bound with lime mortar. The fort later came under the Nizam of Hyderabad.

Parts of the walls have worn away, and stretches of older ramparts lie scattered across the grounds. The Kumbheshwar Temple stands inside the enclosure, the Bhalkeshwar Temple a little way outside, and a Ganesha shrine marks the northern end. A stepwell sits against one side of the walls, while a narrow lane on the other leads to a courtyard to the north. Local tradition says a ruler named Jang Bahadur gathered some 1,500 men here to rise against the British in 1857.