Madurai is known by many names through the ages—each proclaiming one of its many virtues. But historians once called it by a lesser-known title: the “City within Four Walls.”
For nearly two centuries, the city of Meenakshi was enclosed by a massive double-layered fortification system—an inner fort surrounding the famous temple and an outer fort at the periphery with 72 imposing bastions. Today, almost nothing remains. The walls were torn down in the 1840s to make way for a growing colonial city. Only one structure survives: the West Gate bastion, a lonely sentinel standing witness to a forgotten military marvel.
This is the story of the Madurai Fort—its 72 bastions, its political symbolism, its destruction, and its last surviving remnant.
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