Photograph of the interior of the Fort at Chitradurga from the Archaeological Survey of India Collections: India Office Series, taken by Henry Dixon around 1868. The hill fort at Chitradurga is situated in a rocky landscape north-west of Bangalore. The fortifications were built by the Nayak Palegars in the 17th century. In 1779 Haider Ali captured the mud fort and erected a stone fortress. This Kallina Kote or Palace of Stone has many massive gateways with bent passageways, a palace, a mosque, granaries, oil pits and water tanks. Inside the fort complex there are fourteen old temples; the Hidimbeshwara temple is the oldest on the site.
