The ancient Umerkot Fort might had been founded with the town itself.
However, the present fort is not that old and was constructed on the site of
the ancient Fort by Mian Noor Muhammad Kalhora in 1746. The cultural
material found buried within the fort also verifies this fact.
Plan:
The fort is roughly rectangular in plan measuring 292m x 228m. The
fortification wall, 3m in width, gives a tapered look both on the exterior
and interior. It has four semi-circular bastions at the corners. At present
one of the bastions has completely vanished while still another reduced to
shambles. The walls and bastions have burnt-brick facing with the filling of
sun-dried bricks or simple mud and earth.Main Gate & the Bastions:
The main gate, also known as Shahi darwaza, is situated roughly in the
middle of the eastern wall. In plan, it is a crooked type of entrance, with
an arched opening and a couple of bastions, all built in sand stone. The
parapet, which seems to be of later period, is built in burnt-bricks and has
musketry holes. The bastions are also provided with machicolations for
pouring hot water or molten lead or oil on the advancing army frying to
force their way through the entrance. Such machicolations are also found
provided in the brick-wall around the fort. Close to one of the bastions, on
the bricks making the facing of the Gate there seem impressions of hoofs of
a horse, locally attributed to those of Rai Rattan Singh's, which had tried
to cross over when its master was about to be hanged in the fort by the
British.
The Burj:
Almost in the centre of the fort, in front of the main entrance or Shahi
Gate mentioned earlier, is a large burj or steps, about watchtower. A flight
of 58 3m wide, is provided on the eastern side. The burj is a little over
17m high from the ground level. The burj is made with burnt-bricks, also
clearly showing many repairs at different times of history.
On the top of the burj are fixed seven cannons with their barrels jetting
out of the parapet. These cannons rest on platforms constructed on an equal
distance from each other. Immediately south of the burj is a British period
circuit house still in use even after over hundred years of its existence.
In addition to the main Shahi gate the fort now has two simple entrances.
The one with a rampart on the outside opens on the Umerkot-Mirpur Khas road,
a little east of the northwestern bastion. The other doorway opens in the
middle of the western fortification wall, opposite Circuit House. Both of
these entrances, devoid of any special features, are simple doorways
probably opened during the British period.
H.E. Watson Memorial:
Near the northern entrance there is a brick-built pond-like depression,
which opens to an arched-shaped tunnel made to discharge the water collected
inside the fort. A chhatri-like structure in sang-e-khattu, yellow sand
stone, supported on eight pillars, stands in northwestern side of the fort,
near the above-mentioned drain. Here in the shape of a cross is the grave of
Herbert Edward Watson, Ex-Deputy Commissioner of Thar and Parkar. There are
three inscriptions in English:
1. "H.E. Watson Sindh Commission: for many years Deputy Commissioner of this
district, born 23rd November 1846, died 26th February 1894.
This memorial was erected by the subordinate officials and zamindar of Thar
and Parkar in Remembrance of his good qualities and in token of their
affection for him."
2."In loving memory of Herbert Edward Watson, Deputy Commissioner Thar and
Parkar. Died Feb, 27th 1894 aged 47."
3. "Well done thou good and faithful servant Entre thou into the ion of the
God."
The Museum & Other buildings:
There are some other buildings, though not of any historical or
architectural consequence, in the fort. Near to the northwestern gate are
some residential quarters for the staff of the Umerkot Museum. In the
southeastern portion are the buildings housing provincial government offices
while on the other side in the northeastern corner is the newly built,
'gymkhana'. On the western side of this building is the new museum building.
The old museum, lying immediately west of it, is set in a single hall of
considerable dimensions. It was inaugurated in 1968. Still serving well the
scholars and general visitors alike it was conceived keeping in view the
importance of Umerkot as birth-place of Emperor Akbar the Great. On display
are some of the rare manuscripts, framin, specimens of calligraphy,
miniature paintings, coins and armory. Some cannon balls and stone carvings
retrieved from random excavations in the fort are displayed in the open
outside the museum.
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