Umerkot Fort

Pakistan, Pakistan

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Umerkot Fort (also spelled Umarkot Fort or Amarkot Fort) is a historic 11th‑century citadel in the city of Umerkot in Sindh, Pakistan, built in the Rajput style of architecture and later modified under Mughal, Kalhora and Talpur rule.

The fort was originally founded by Umar, the first king of the Soomra dynasty (around 1050–1350 CE), and subsequently came under the Sodha Rajput clan, especially the Ranas of Umerkot, who ruled the town and its fort for centuries. Umerkot Fort is most famous in history as the place where the young Mughal emperor Akbar was born in 1542, when his father Humayun, fleeing military defeat by Sher Shah Suri, was given refuge by Rana Parshad (Perma) Sodha in the fort.

In 1746, the Mughal subahdar Noor Mohammad Kalhoro built a new fort at the same location, and later the Kalhoras sold Umerkot to the Raja of Jodhpur, from whom the Talpurs recovered it in 1813; the fort remained in Talpur hands until the British occupied Sindh in 1843, and after 1947 it came under the control of the Pakistani government.

The fort is roughly rectangular, with massive tapered walls supported by four semi‑circular bastions, an arched gateway on the eastern side flanked by semi‑circular towers, and a central watch tower that can be climbed to see the whole town; the original fortification walls were up to 6 meters wide and 15 meters high, and the outer face was lined with burnt brick tiles laid in mud mortar.