Uparkot Fort

Rising on a rocky plateau above the old walled city of Junagadh, Uparkot Fort — literally the "upper fort" — is one of Gujarat's most atmospheric heritage sites, a citadel whose layered stonework records more than two thousand years of continuous habitation.

• Tradition links its founding to the Mauryan era, around the time of Chandragupta Maurya in the late fourth century BCE, after which it passed through the hands of the Kshatrapas, Guptas, the Chudasama Rajputs and later rulers, each adding walls, gates and waterworks.
• For long stretches the fort was abandoned to the jungle and "rediscovered" more than once, a history that lends its ramparts a brooding, time-worn character.
• A major conservation and restoration project, completed in the early 2020s, has reopened its pathways and given visitors a far more legible sense of its scale.
• The fort's great fascination lies in its rock-cut engineering.
• Two remarkable stepwells — the Adi Kadi Vav, carved as a single flight of steps straight down through living rock to reach the water table, and the deep, spiralling Navghan Kuvo — reveal how the citadel sustained itself through long sieges.
• Nearby, a cluster of rock-cut caves, often described as Buddhist monastic dwellings dating to the early centuries CE, shows carved pillars, chambers and cisterns hewn into the stone; they are secular archaeological monuments today, valued for their craftsmanship.
• Two large medieval cannons, popularly called Neelam and Manek, still command the ramparts, while the walls frame sweeping views toward the sacred Girnar hills.
• Allow ninety minutes to two hours to wander the gates, wells and viewpoints at an unhurried pace.
• Uparkot sits at the heart of the wider Somnath–Junagadh circuit: many travellers pair it with Girnar's temple-crowned peaks, the Ashokan rock edicts on the road to Girnar, and a day trip to the Gir lion sanctuary, using Somnath's Jyotirlinga coast as their base.
• Carry water, wear sturdy shoes for uneven stone steps, and visit in the cooler morning hours.
• For food, Junagadh's old town near the fort is a stronghold of pure-vegetarian Kathiyawadi and Gujarati cooking.
• Look for pure-veg Gujarati thali houses around Kalwa Chowk and the M.G.
• Road area, where unlimited thalis arrive with rotla, seasonal shaak, dal, kadhi, khichdi and jaggery.
• Simple pure-veg restaurants and farsan shops near the fort serve fresh dhokla, khaman, fafda-jalebi and ganthiya, and roadside stalls offer hot chai and hand-pressed sugarcane juice.
• Sweet shops sell Kathiyawadi favourites such as penda and mohanthal.
• As across Gujarat, this is a dry, meat-free belt, so vegetarian and teetotal travellers are exceptionally well served.