Ranikot Fort, the Great Wall of Sindh

A wall 31 km long, and nobody can say for certain who built it

A fort whose walls run for 31 km along the contours of the bleak Kirthar hills near Sann in Jamshoro District, Sindh, so long that it is called the Great Wall of Sindh and compared to the Great Wall of China. Its original purpose and its builders are unknown. It has been credited in turn to the Sassanians, the Scythians and others, and it is now usually placed in the Gupta era of the 4th or 5th century AD; Sindh archaeologists agree that the Talpur dynasty rebuilt parts of it in 1812, at a cost of 1.2 million rupees. On the north a natural ridge closes the circuit, and on the other three sides stone and lime walls zigzag between bastions, with four gates. Inside, about 3 km from the Sann Gate, a smaller fort, the Miri, is said to have been the palace of the Mirs. The fort lies in Kirthar National Park, 90 km north of Hyderabad, reached by a rugged 21 km road from near Sann to the Sann Gate. It is protected under the Antiquities Act and has been on the tentative list for World Heritage since 1993.