Since I hear lot of news about gold digging in historic sites, I rewind few memories I had of a place called Kondaveedu.
I used to hike this beautiful fort called kondaveedu Fort up the hill. It used to be a popular tourist destination 35 years ago. Over the course of time, this fort went in to ruins by gold diggers and love birds writings of their love on the Fort walls added more to the vandalism. There are still some ruins that explain the architecture in detail. Few temples that are in deep ruins remind architecture that is at least 700 years old. One of the beams of the temple collapsed as late as 15 years ago. You can read the inscriptions on the temple walls whose script looks like a breed of Telugu and kannada, probably explaining something about the last ruler. There are few ancient shops that where used to store ration. Three beautiful fresh water ponds, that get feed from rain water one after another. Even 10 years ago when I last hiked I see many gold diggers up the hill and empty liquor bottles left over. Government sanctioned 2 crores to stop the further damage, but funds where moved to develop another historical temple which is underfunded. More about the fort.

 

 

 

It says:The Kondaveedu fort is located in Kodaveedu village in the Narsaraopet Taluk of Guntur District. The fort is now in ruins and is situated 520 meters above sea level. This fort was built in 14thcentury and was considered as one of the strongest fortress in India. Kondaveedu remained under the Reddy dynasty who ruled from this fort for 100 years between 1328 and 1428. The wall of the fort is 30 Km long and there is also a huge bund constructed in between the two hills that can be seen till to this day. This fort is located among the agricultural fields filled with cotton crops and chili plantations.

you can see how the walls are vandalized by writings of young lovers

 

konda ekkina tarvatha main entrance

 

Interesting locale: Veteran film director K. Viswanath at the foothills of the Kondaveedu Fort on Sunday. Fort development committee president K. Siva Reddy is also seen. —

 

pilllar can be seen near the foot hill  

somewhere here there is a place called kattula baavi, I dont remember much history behind kattula baavi. (well of swords)

I remember this hanuma idol  which used to be in good shape. Gold diggers used to take blessings from hanuma before going for a dig. Now it joined the list of ruined items it seems.

 

more pics from internet

 

temple ruins