Champaner

Champaner lies at the foot of Pavagadh, a steep hill crowned by a fortress and a shrine to the goddess Kalika. The hill and the plain below preserve temples, mosques, palaces, walls and waterworks from a city that was briefly the capital of Gujarat. Its great congregational mosque combines lofty minarets, domes and richly carved stone screens, reflecting the architectural skill of the sultanate’s builders.

After a long siege, Sultan Mahmud Begada captured Pavagadh from its local rulers in 1484. Recognising the site’s strategic value, he built a new capital at Champaner, also called Muhammadabad, and endowed it with mosques, gardens and works to store and distribute water. The city flourished under his successors, but in 1535 the Mughal emperor Humayun captured it. Its period as a capital was short, and it never regained its former prominence.