Page 25 - Lohgarh

Lohgarh : The Largest Fort of the World w 25

performed in few months or a span of years; it must have taken 70 to
80 years to achieve all this.
The rivers and rivulets divided the Fort into two parts. There was a
deep water channel on all the sides of the Fort and these walls were
protected by walls, which provided a great defense to the Fort. If the
enemy crossed one wall, he had to face a great résistance before crossing
the adjacent wall; and, there were walls after walls around each mound.
In this land the enemy could not hope of getting any aid from those
coming behind to supplement him.
The hills of the Fort were covered with thorny and thick bushes,
cacti, other plants and even poisonous bushes; besides there were
countless slippery slopes and tight passages from where neither horses
nor men could pass with speed. This made capture of this Fort a very
difficult task.
On the other hand, the Sikh soldiers had made secret passages to
reach to the higher hills or to escape from the hills towards the rivulets
or to flee towards the forest area. Such a place was good for guerrilla
war (of which the Sikhs were expert). Therefore, this could get a
graveyard for the enemy powers. Only, in case hundreds of thousands
of military units attacked the Fort, they could capture it only after many
years of warfare and that even after sustaining great casualties.

Amar Vails (Hanging Vines)
In the forests there are some hanging vines holding which one can fly
from one tree to another or from one hill to a tree or another hill.
Unlike branches of a tree, these vines are very strong and do not get
decayed, damaged or broken with the passage of time. Guerrillas,
monkeys and apes use these vines for jumping from one tree to another.
At times these are very long. These vines have a very long life as well;
sometimes hundreds of years. There were several such vines in the
Lohgarh Fort (even now some such vines can be seen there). These
vines generally are not found in this zone; hence it seems that Lakhi Rai
Vanjara used to trade goods between Yaarkand and Samarkand (Central
Asia) to Sri Lanka. He might have imported them from some other forests.