Jaigarh Fort

Jaigarh fort was built over a rocky hill known as Cheel Ka Teela (mound of eagles) mainly for defense purposes by Mirza Raja Jai Singh during 1621 – 1677 AD. This fort was subsequently developed by his succeeding rulers. Maharaja Jai Singh II completed this and named it as JAIGARH in the year 1725 AD. This fort has huge walls and gates.

There is a Cannon Foundry located inside this fort. Kr Man Singh of Ambar after winning Kabul acquired the knowledge of Cannon making and setup this factory. He bought wooden models of the process and machinery to develop this factory at Jaigarh Fort.

The main attraction of this fort is World's biggest wheel mounted Cannon Jai Baan. This twenty feet long barrel is made of alloy steel and its weight is 50 tons. There is an arrangement of turning the gun by wheels and roller fix pins. Its main wheels on which it stands is of 9ft height. 100 kg of gun powder can be loaded to on the cannon. This big cannon was cast in the year 1720 AD during the period of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II.

This fort has an excellent rain water harvesting system where water comes to two main tanks through interconnected canals from different part of the fort.

Around Jaipur

During the first rain of the season water with darts came and goes to the first tank. A gate is installed to divert the water to a clean and big second tank to collect clean water from subsequent rains. The storage tanks are covered from the top. There is a belief that state treasure is kept inside this big tank. After winning the battles against Kabul and frontier areas treasures are kept inside these tanks.