In 1540 Sher Shah Suri drove the Mughal emperor Humayun out of India. To stop him from coming back through the north-west, and to control the local Gakhar chiefs who supported him, Sher Shah ordered a massive fort on the Grand Trunk Road near Jhelum. Work began in 1541 under his minister Raja Todar Mal.
Rohtas is all about defence. Its stone walls run for about four kilometres, with 68 bastions and 12 gates. The Sohail Gate and the Kabuli Gate are the grandest, and the step-wells inside could supply a large garrison during a siege.
Sher Shah died in 1545, before the fort was finished, and when Humayun returned in 1555 the fort was handed over without a fight. Because it was never stormed, it survives as one of the finest examples of early Muslim military architecture in South Asia, and UNESCO listed it in 1997.
