Madugiri Betta

The wonderful and serene situate of Madugiri at a distance of 106 kilometers from the city of Bangalore is one of the top places to visit near Bangalore. It is positioned in a small town in the district of Tumkur, Karnataka.

Madugiri is the second largest monolithic rock hill which is counted and rank all across Asia. Lying at the safest altitude of 3,930 feet high this famous destination is loved for trekking and camping near Bangalore.

Madugiri betta history

Talking about the history of Madugiri, the construction was made during the reign of Raja Heera Gowda. It started off in the year 1678.  Even the construction for the original mud fort started during this period. The edifice was finally completed around the year 1740 AD.

The fortification of the Madugiri fort took place under the rule of Hyder Ali. Under his rule, adding of huge semicircle, watchtowers and large spherical granaries were made inside and out.  This fort was under the control of the British for quite some time. This place was used by the Britishers to simply prison the mutineers during the independence movement in 1857.

The name Madugiri is derived from the Honey bee colonies which were found in abundance near the hill slope. The fort situates to that place. The three top gateways to the fort, namely, Diddibagilu, Mysore gate, and Antaralada Bagilu.
 
A series of hilltop found here near to the fort. Even the temple of Gopalakrishna is situated at the top of the hill. The fort and the temple are not maintained properly thus, it has started tarnishing.

Madugiri village is located at the bottom which is popular by the name of Maddagiri.  It has old temples of the Malleshwara and Venkataramanaswami built following the Dravidian style by the feudatories of Vijayanagara.

Madugiri Fort trek & Madugiri trek difficulty level

The Madugiri fort has four levels from the base to the top level with circular bastions. The walls of the fort are 6 feet tall in measurement and have regular interval to it. Throughout the process of climbing, there is a huge tank. Rainwater is collected in the tanks.

Trekking to Madugiri fort takes around 1.5 hours on one way of trekking.  You need to start from the bottom of the fort. The levels are difficult as the slopes are vertical and challenging. The initial phase of the trek has prominent steps, but once you move further you will notice the curved of the rocks. It gets steeper while you start climbing the stairs.

The trekking trail gets more dangerous with 50 – 70 degree of the fort slope. There are railing installed to avoid any sort of accident while trekking. You will observe some extravagant view of the hills surrounding the fort. There are certain areas where the trekker does not have to trek as there are no steps. This requires walking on the plain rocks.
 
Few trekkers have once explored till the top of the hill and reached the Gopalakrishna temple and the barracks. At the hilltop, there are few other temples which will take 30 minutes to explore.

One day trip from Bangalore to this wonderful Madugiri is a lovely experience to walk around. Visiting around the time of October to March is the best season to enjoy the view without any disturbance from natural calamities.