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Champaner-Pavagadh: UNESCO World Heritage Site

Champaner-Pavagadh, A UNESCO World Heritage site, is situated in the district of Panchmahal of Gujarat state of India. Champaner is a historical city of located at the foothill of Pavagadh Hill. The height of the hill is around 800 m above the sea level.
 
Pavagadh, a hill fortress, of an early Hindu capital, was later won by Sultan Mahmud and renamed it “Muhammadabad”. The major structures here represent a perfect work of Indo-Islamic Architecture like Jami Masjid (Great Mosque), which was a model for later mosque architecture in subcontinent.

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The Saher-Ki-Masjid (Mosque of the City)



The site also includes Palaces, Religious Buildings, Residential Buildings etc. A site worth mentioning is the Kalika Mata Temple, which is situated on the hilltop of Pavagadh Hill, and one of the Shaktipeeths of Goddess Durga. Besides this, there are other Jain Temples, Vishnu Temple and several small temples. The Champaner- Pavagadh Site is a place of worship and continuous pilgrimage for Hindu believers.

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View from the hilltop of Pavagadh


This site was considered as UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year of 2004.


Minarets of Mosque


The site is the only complete and unchanged Islamic pre-Mughal city

After getting this much of information, I could no longer contain my curiosity to visit Champaner.

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Windows of the Mosque


The day I reached my destination was beautiful Sunday of the month of July. I had already convinced my friends the night before this trip to Champaner-Pavagadh. As planned,  we caught the first train from Ahmedabad to Vadodara, and reached there by 8:30 am. After enjoying a light breakfast we took a local bus and got to Champaner-Pavagadh by 10:00 am. Having bought tickets to tour the monuments, we started exploring all major sites. 

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Stone Carving-1
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Stone Carving-2




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Gate of the Mosque
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Everything was as beautiful as we had heard or read about in books. I was really impressed to see how well maintained & clean the heritage sites had been kept by ASI (Archaeological Survey of India).

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Minarets of Mosque of the City


After Exploring Champaner we headed towards the hill of Pavagadh, where temple of Kalika Mata is situated. We have chosen an option of ropeway to get to top of the hill, though walkway were also there. 

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Ropeway to Pavagadh Hill
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View from hilltop 











The famous Hindu temple was flooded by people, and obviously we had to queue up with the other pilgrims and wait for our turn. After completing our worship rituals, we headed towards our final destination of the day i.e. ‘Arch’

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Saat Kamaan or 7 bows: wonderful piece of Architecture’


    How to Reach:
 Air: Nearest Airport is Vadodara (50 km) and International Airport is Ahmedabad (146 km)
Rail: Nearest Railway Station is Vadodara is (50 km) connecting with all major cities of India.
Road: Gujarat State Road Transport bus available for connecting to cities.  

“Keep Travelling Keep Exploring”

8 Comment

  1. The views and architecture is breathtaking! I wish I could have seen more of the natural beauty. Kudos to the administration for preserving it so well. I loved reading all about the history and your journey 🙂

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