Bhopal

Bhopal occupies the Malwa plateau just north of the Vindhya range, at an average elevation of about five hundred metres. The ground rises toward the mountains to the south and includes small hills within the city, notably Idgah, Arera and Shyamala. Various natural and artificial lakes spread along the urban edge and give Bhopal its familiar name, the City of Lakes. Water, uneven ground and wooded rises distinguish it from the uniformly flat plains farther north.

The city began as a small Gond settlement in this Malwa landscape. It flourished around 1707, when the decline of Mughal authority left space for new regional powers. Dost Mohammad Khan, a Pashtun soldier who became a mercenary commander, built Fatehgarh fort in the 1720s and consolidated a state through agreements and conflict with the Gond queen Kamlapati. Bhopal became the capital of the resulting princely state under its nawabs.

That political foundation shaped a city of fortified heights, waterworks and courtly construction. Bhopal came under British paramountcy in 1818 and remained a princely capital. The lakes and surrounding hills, together with the old fort, preserve the transition from a small settlement on the plateau to a major administrative centre.