Manjarabad Fort, Sakleshpur, Karnataka Tourism

Manjarabad fort is only star shaped fort in India. It was build in 1792 by Tipu Sultan with help of French engineer.

• Summary in short:
• Travel Type: Historical place
• Best Time to visit: Whole year, however better to avoid rainy session.
• Time to spend: 1-2 hours
• Nearest Major City: Sakleshpur City
• Best mode of travel: Bus, Taxi

• History 

Tipu Sultan built this Fort to fight agains of British East India Company. At the time even Hydrabad's Nizam and Marathas already aligned with British. Sultan wanted to built high way from Mangalore to Coorg. When Tipu sultan visited the fort to see it, then it was covered by Fog. So he kept its name Manjarabad fort. Manjarabad is the corrupted version of 'manju' or fog in Kanara.

• How to reach, 

The fort is located 10 kilometres from the Sakaleshpura town to its south west, which is on the right bank of the Hemavati River, 37 km from Hassan on the National Highway no 48 that runs from Bangalore to Mangalore. Sakaleshpura is the headquarters of Manjiraba taluk and is a municipality.

This fort is located on hill top with elevation of 988 meters, so it gives clear commanding view of surrounding. On a clear day even Arbian see can be seen from the Fort. To visit this fort you need to climb stairs for 15 to 20 minutes.

This fort has build with Octagonal layout with eight walls. The external wall of the fort built with granite stones.

There has a deep well for water storage and one underground room to store gun powder.

Gun powder storage situated just beside of the water well. Even in Summer days this underground room stays cool. According to history a tunnel links the fort with the Srirangapatna fort, which is located around 150 kilometers away.