| Rawat Fort قلعہ روات | |
|---|---|
| Rawat,Pakistan | |
 A view of the fort's main entrance | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Fort |
| Location | |
  Rawat Fort قلعہ روات Location within Pakistan | |
| Coordinates | 33°29′53″N73°11′39″E / 33.4981°N 73.1942°E /33.4981; 73.1942 |
Rawat Fort (Urdu:قلعہ روات), also known asSarai Rawat, is an early 15th century fortifiedcaravanserai on thePothohar Plateau ofPakistan, near the city ofRawalpindi in the province ofPunjab.[1][2]
It is 17 km east of Rawalpindi onGrand Trunk Road. The second centuryManikyala Stupa can be seen from the roof of the fort's mosque. The fort is located approximately 50 miles from the vastRohtas Fort, which was built bySher Shah Suri to bring the Pothohar region under his control.
Rawat Fort derives its name from the Arabic wordrabat (Arabic:رباط), meaning 'caravanserai', an inn forcaravans.[3][4][2]
The Rawat fort or sarai is believed to have been founded as a caravanserai in the 15th century by theDelhi Sultanate. The caravanserai itself may have been built atop aGhaznavid-era fort that was established in 1036 CE.[5] The caravanserai was then later fortified in the 16th century by theGakhar clan in order to defend the Pothohar plateau fromSher Shah Suri's forces.[6][7]
The fort is almost in square form and has two gates. It measures 93.5 x 106.3 m and covers a courtyard of around 10,000 m2 (2.5 acres).[2] There is an octagonol tomb with a dome measuring 16.6 m in diameter in the fort's inner portion – an area which also contains many graves. The tomb is traditionally believed to belong toSarang Khan Gakhar, while graves to be of his associates who died fighting along with him against Sher Shah in 1541.[2] Along the perimeter are several small cells, which may have originally been small rooms rented out to itinerant merchants.The west wall of fort contains a mosque with three domes, measuring 29.5 x 12.1 m.[8]
The fort is federally protected as a Cultural Heritage Site of Punjab, and is managed by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage. In November 2016, a conservation plan was commissioned for preservation of the fort.[9] 50 million rupees were allocated in March 2017 towards the first of two phases of conservation of the Rawat Fort.[10]
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he information displayed at Rawat Fort's by archaeology department reveals that it was built in the early 15th century by Salteen-e-Dehli. However there are some contradictions about the historical background of this fort. According to some historians, the fort was built by Sultan Masood, son of Sultan Mehmood Ghaznavi in 1036 AD while some other books of history reveal that Sarang Khan, the leader of Gakhar tribes in Pothohar, built the fort.
