Ranikot Fort - The Great Wall of Sindh

For many Karachiites, movement outside the city is an upheaval task. Unlike people at other provinces and metropolises, Karachi majorly consists of people who usually shy away from moving outside the city to explore various sites. I being one of them tried my best to quit being a couch potato and start looking for more friendly destinations. One fine day my colleague located a travel agency online with a different mindset and making tourism within Sindh more interesting. In a matter of a week, the tourists were organizing a visit at Ranikot Fort, some 300 kms from Karachi. Without giving a second thought, I agreed and handed over my share of contribution required for the visit. And it was a good payback. 

Ranikot Fort is a historical fort in Sindh province of Pakistan. It is also known as the great wall of Sindh and is the world's largest fort with a circumference of approximately 26 kilometers (16 miles). Since 1993, it has been on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Ranikot Fort is situated in the Kirthar Range, about 30 km southwest of Sann, in Jamshoro District, Sindh Province, Pakistan. It is approximately 90 km north of Hyderabad, in vicinity of 25.8965N, 67.9025E.

After a good halwa poori at the Boat Basin setup by the organizers, we started our journey from Karachi at 0830 hrs which was 45 minutes late. The ride was a bit horrible since the transporter did not lived up to his promise. But the best part was that the organizers realized their mistake and were humble and promised to refund our 50% of the amount.

If you go by your car, it will take 3 hours and 15 minutes through 95% good road conditions. The later 5% isn’t that bad patch. But since it was November and the climate was kind, the journey wasn’t that harsh. After Jamshoro, at the 0 point of Sann, we took a left turn where a big board said the Ranikot Fort was 15 kms ahead and yes it was. After making several stops for fuel and slow ride, we finally reached our destination at around 1330 hrs. Once we came out and saw the great wall and the magnificent architecture standing right in front of us, it was breath taking. We forgot the whole bumpy ride and became excited to explore the place. The wall becomes visible from 5 kms distance.

The architecture of the place felt like Persian style, but the mystery was that there was no history of the fort available as of today’s date. The whole time, I just kept asking myself that why on earth would someone build this Grand Structure to protect what? But the shame is that such a great piece of history just went away missing without being written and someone to know nothing about it at all. Since there were proper stairs built throughout, the great wall, it was easy to move to the top. But since I suffer from height phobia, I just went till where I felt comfortable. The structure was intriguing and magnificently chalked out over the cliffs extending till 25 kms approximately. It was really quiet that I could hear the wind blow from far away. You can also hear your voice echo. Then came the lunch time and the organizers served the best biryani ever with unlimited amount of soft drink refills. We spent 3 hours at the grand structure and then came back to Karachi by 2300 hrs.

After the tiring trip we both had a great dinner at Bilal Broast near Newtown Mosque and fresh juices from Ice Cool Café. A splendid day trip.