xliv 



Beport of the Archaeological Survey, 



still exists in very fair order all round the Fort, except on the south 

 side, where there is a deep and extensive hollow that was most pro- 

 bably once filled with water. About one-half of the main walls are 

 still standing as firm and as solid as when they were first built. At 

 all the salient points there are large bastions from 60 to 100 feet in 

 diameter. Two of the largest of these, which are on the north side, 

 are called the Batch Burj and the Solan Bury. The long lines of 

 wall between these bastions are broken by numbers of smaller towers 

 well splayed out at the base, and 45 feet in diameter at top, with 

 curtains of 80 feet between them. Along the base of these towers, 

 which are still 30 feet in height, there is an outer line of wall forming 

 a raoni or faussebraie, which is also 30 feet in height. The parapet 

 of this wall has entirely disappeared, and the wall itself is so much 

 broken, as to afford an easy descent into the ditch in many places. 

 The upper portion of the counterscarp walls has nearly all fallen down, 

 excepting on the north-west side, where there is a double line of works 

 strengthened by detached bastions. 



84. The positions of three of the gateways in the west half of 

 the Fort are easily recognized ; but the walls of the eastern half are 

 so much broken, that it is now only possible to guess at the probable 

 position of one other gate. The north gate is judiciously placed in 

 the re-entering angle close to the Sohan Burj, where it still forms 

 a deep gap in the lofty mass of rampart, by which the cowherds enter 

 with their cattle. The west gate is the only one of which any portion 

 of the walls now remains. It is said to have been called the Banjit 

 gate. This gateway was 17 feet wide, and there is still standing on 

 the left-hand side a large upright stone, with a groove for guiding the 

 ascent and the descent of a portcullis. This stone is 7 feet in height 

 above the rubbish, but it is probably not less than 12 or J 5 feet. It 

 is 2 feet 1 inch broad and 1 foot 3 inches thick. The approach to 

 this gate is guarded by no less than three small out-works. The 

 south gate is in the southmost angle near Adan Khan's tomb. It is 

 now a mere gap in the mass of rampart. On the south-east side, 

 there must, I think, have been a gate near Sir Thomas Metcalfe's 

 house, leading towards Tughlakabad and Mathura. 



85. Syad Ahmad states, on the authority of Zia Barni, that the 

 west gate of Bai Pithora's Fort was called the Ghazni gate after the 

 Musalman conquest, because the Ghazni troops had gained the fortress 



