Namakkal Fort

Namakkal Fort stands on Namagiri, a hillock formed of a single rock about 75 m tall in the centre of Namakkal town in Tamil Nadu. It dates from the 17th century, in the reign of Thirumalai Nayak of Madurai, and is reported to have been raised by Ramachandra Nayakar, the Poligar of Sendamangalam. The British took it in 1768 but lost it to Hyder Ali; his son Tipu Sultan kept arms here and used it as a watch tower, and it passed to the East India Company under the Treaty of Srirangapatnam.

The walls are built of neatly cut blocks of the hill's own stone, bonded to the rock with mortar, and enclose about 1.5 acres on the summit. Inside are a Narasimha temple and a mosque, and an 8 ft image of Hanuman faces the Narasimha image. The Kamalalayam tank lies at the foot of the hill. Legend says Hanuman brought the rock from the Himalayas as a small saligramam stone, which then grew to its present size.