After exploring the Ajanta caves in the morning, I got on a couple of buses and was dropped off at my next destination: Hotel Kailas, Ellora (2,800Rs). The hotel is very handily placed right outside the gate to the Ellora caves but I wasn’t going to squeeze in two World Heritage Sites in one day, I chilled in the afternoon after a very tasty okra curry (bhindi masala) because I was up first thing in the morning again, for a slightly different experience: The ancient fortress of Daulatabad.

Wed 12th Feb 2025

Another early start for me, as it usually is, to beat the heat and the other tourists, especially those pesky school kid groups! Daulatabad fort is on the main road between Ellora and Aurangabad so a public bus soon arrived and whisked me to my destination. I wasn’t sure what time it opened (different sources told different things as they often do) but it was certainly open by the time I arrived at 8 along with a phalanx of sweepers. They didn’t need to stop off at the ticket office however, or pay the foreigner fee of 300Rs. According to the literature, Daulatabad is one of India’s most remarkable examples of military architecture. It is certainly striking from a distance, perched inaccessibly on top of a huge unscalable rock that rises from the plains. The rock maybe unscalable but fortunately, its builders, the Yadavas in the 11th Century, excavated a tunnel through the rock to reach the upper levels. Below the rock fortress there remain many other fortifications and a huge mosque built much later in the 14th century, by which time the Delhi sultans had taken over. But I decided to get to the top first while it was still cool and then explore the other areas later.

 

 

 

More photos of Daulatabad here

Map of 2025 trip:

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