Manauli Fort

Manauli Fort, or Qila Manauli, stands in the middle of Manauli village in Mohali district, about 11 kilometres from Mohali and Chandigarh. Local lore says the Mughals built it, and sources date it to the 17th or 18th century. A battle here between Banda Singh Bahadur's forces and the Mughals ended in a Sikh victory, the battlefield was renamed Shaheed Bagh, garden of martyrs, and the fort passed to the Sikh warrior Sardar Kapoor Singh of the Singhpuria Misl. His descendants held it for at least seven generations before ownership went to the Government of Punjab.

The architecture mixes Sikh and Mughal styles. The three-storeyed fort is built of Sirhindi bricks and mortar and stands about 20 feet above the surrounding village, with round towers 30 to 35 feet high at its four corners and the main gateway, the Hathi Khana, on the west. It is not easy to get to and is little known, though tourism has grown recently.