Karnala Fort

Karnala Fort, nicknamed Funnel Hill for its shape, is a hill fort in Raigad district about 10 kilometres from Panvel. It now lies within the protected Karnala Bird Sanctuary. The fort mattered because it overlooked the Bor pass on the main trade route between the Konkan coast and the Deccan plateau.

It was probably built before 1400 and served as the north Konkan capital under the Devagiri Yadavas and then the Tughlaqs. Control passed to the Gujarat Sultanate, then in 1540 to Nizam Shah of Ahmednagar, until Portuguese soldiers from Bassein took it back for Gujarat and later kept it, before returning it to the Nizam Shah for an annual payment. Shivaji captured it from the Mughals in 1670, Aurangzeb took it after his death, and in 1740 it passed to the Peshwas.