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built on different parts of the rock. There is a look-out on a peak a little above the castle, and another on the summit above that. In my humble judgment it could be made as strong a place as Gibraltar, which in general configuration, it would much resemble, were the east and west end of the Killah to change place.

“I once visited the Gylfo in his strong-hold, where every thing seemed to be constructed for defence rather than comfort, being a confusion of break-neck stairs, low doors, and dark passages. Upon my expressing wish to visit the top of the Killah, Ahmad Shah looked significantly up the very precipitous and rocky path, and told me that I might go that way if I pleased; but, on the next day, I ascended from the western end, where I found a strong fortification of walls and square towers drawn across the slope, about two hundred feet above the plain. The flat on the summit may be called triangular, but is bare and covered with gritty sand, in which I picked garnets and small crystals. Towards the peak over the castle it becomes a ridge, and on each side of it are piled huge stones, which the smallest force would seem sufficient to send thundering down upon the plain below. There is no water on the top of the rock but close to the river under the castle is a fine spring”.

The description of the fort extensively quoted above from Vigne pertains to the period when Ahmad Shah, the last independent king of Baltitstan was ruling there in 1835. During the 200 years that elapsed between the period of Ali Sher Khan and that of Ahmad Shah, the fort must have undergone a change, at least to some extent.

Allusion to the Skardu Fort is also made in the ‘Badshah Namah’ of Abdul Hamid Lahori (1654 A.D.) the Court Historian of Emperor Shah Jahan. He described the invasion of Skardu by the Moghals during the reign of Abdal Khan son of Ali Sher Khan Anchan. The relevant portion is reproduced below:-

“Ali Rai, (Ali Sher Khan) father of Abdal, the present Marzban of Tibet, had built upon the summits of two high mountains two strong forts- the higher of which was called Kaharphucha, and the other Kahchana. Each of them had a road of access” “like the neck of a reed, and curve of a talon”. The road of communication between the two was on the top of the mountain”.