Page 46 - Lohgarh

46 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

the enemy may be attached, suddenly in case of their entry from this
side. It was impossible for the Mughals to make the estimate of
arrangements made by the Sikhs in anticipation of a big war. There are
many Khols (small rivulets) such as Haripur Khol, Lohgarh Khol which
fall into Som River and make it a medium size river.
There is another river Boli Nadi, in the South side of the Fort, which
touches the Dabar Hills foot beyond 10 km before it emerges in the
plain area. This river is a seasonal one which flows heavily in rainy season,
and brings sand down the hill in the river bed. This sand has gold particles
and even today the district administration Yamuna Nagar, leases out
the river beds for extracting gold. The Hill side of the river, having steep
rise and some weak points was plugged with a heavy entrenchment up
to the approach of Lohgarh Fort. There are other Khols such as Nagli
Khol, which forms a big river called Pathrala, which makes a heavy
discharge (30000 c.c. per second) of water during the rainy season.

The Southern Side of the Fort

The Southern side of Lohgarh Fort faces towards a plain; and, this area
was used to produce food grains by the Sikhs. In between the plain
area and the hilly area of Lohgarh Fort, Som river flows which finally
makes its discharge in Yamuna river. It touches about 10 km from west
with the feet of hills.
Khols and rivulets are passages which make approaches towards
the Lohgarh Fort, which made the Fortification of the Lohgarh stronger
because from the edge of Som river, hill slope were steep and had abrupt
rise. This made the approach to Lohgarh Fort still tougher. Heavily
ramparts entrenchments were constructed by the Sikh army to inflict
heavy damage to enemy in case of attack from this side. A number of
high pickets/Fortresses were raised, so that the enemy movement can
be viewed from a distance.
The view of the Som river and its adjacent plain area are visible
from high pickets/garhis. Many rivulets, ravines and many khols,
emerging out from Dabar Hills, the flow of which falls in Som Nadi,
ultimately emerge into Yamuna river. Light towers on the hillocks were