fossilised vessel. Unless one has a predilection for pushing one's way
through a perpendicular jungle or crawling over jagged and sunbaked rock,
the only way to ascend the hill is from the south-western side, from the
upper portion of which still frown the outworks and bastioned walls which
once rendered the fortress impregnable. The road from the town of Junnar is
in tolerable repair and leads you across a stream, past the ruined mud
walls of an old fortified enclosure, and past the camping-ground of the
Twelve Wells, until you reach a group of trees overshadowing the ruined
tombs of a former captain of the fort and other Musulmans. The grave of the
Killedar is still in fair condition; but the walls which enclose it are
sorely dilapidated, and the wild thorn and prickly pear, creeping unchecked
through the interstices, have run riot over the whole enclosure.

At this point one must leave the main road, which runs forward to the crest
of the Pirpadi Pass, and after crossing a level stretch of rock, set one's
steps upon the pathway which, flanked on one side by the lofty
rock-bastions of the hill and on the other by the rolling slopes, leads
upwards to the First Gate. At your feet lies the deserted and ruined
village of Bhatkala, which once supplied the Musulman garrison with food
and other necessaries, and is now but a memory; and above your head the
wall and outwork of the Phatak Tower mark the vicinity of the shrine of
Shivabai, the family goddess of the founder of the Maratha Empire. The
pathway yields place to a steep and roughly-paved ascent, girt with dense
clumps of prickly pear, extending as far as the first gateway of the
fortress. There are in all seven great gateways guarding the approach
to the hill-top, of which the first already mentioned, the second or
"Parvangicha Darvaja," the fourth or Saint's gate, and the fifth
or Shivabai gate are perhaps more interesting than the rest. One
wonders why there should be seven gateways, no more and no less.
Was it merely an accident or the physical formation of the hill-side