Fortress of the widows. This may remind you of the Black Widow (Natasha-Scarlett Johansson-Romanoff) in Avengers or the White Widow (Alanna-Vanessa Kirby-Mitsopolis) in Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Never mind! In the legend regarding the fortress of widows, they were warrior widows. They were women who had joined their husbands in various battles against the invaders who wanted to take their land. After their husbands died in battle, they were then united in a special army for women and the majority of whom were widows.
This army of warrior widows was led by a brave woman who was trusted by the sultan and had the rank of admiral, her name was Malahayati. The name and story about Malahayati seem to have a similarity with Hua Mulan in Chinese legend - which was recently filmed and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It's just that the legend which tells of Admiral Malahayati, does not mention anything about gender conflicts. Malahayati's story seems to be a continuation of Mulan's story in a different version. If Mulan returned to her hometown after she had received an award from the Emperor for her heroic merits, and she refused the high office bestowed upon her, Malahayati was on the contrary, she accepted the high position as admiral and continued her service, until later she also led a special force consisting of widows in the 16th century as the legend tells. Was this Malahayati legend inspired or adopted from the legend of Hua Mulan? That is hard to know for now.
However, legend has it that Admiral Malahayati was the leader of an army of warrior widows who fought heroically to defend their country. Now, we will pay a visit to a fortress that is associated with this legend, and is known as the fortress of the widows.
The fortress is located further east of the two fortresses that I described in my two previous posts (1 & 2). By passing the same route, which is through the road along the sea coast, we will also arrive at this third fort. However, this time I chose a different road, which is a road that cuts across the hilly area to the east of the Aceh valley. By going through this road, when we arrive at the hilly area, we can see the Aceh valley from there.
In front of this picture, to your right is the northern part of the valley and to your left is the southern part of the valley where I live.
After passing the top of the hill, the road will descend into a valley which later leads to the north for about half an hour we will arrive at a bay known as the Krueng Raya bay.
Krueng Raya bay is famous for a port called Malahayati port, the warrior admiral who is told in legends. Several domestic cargo ships were seen anchoring there along with fishing boats.
It is a kind of small raft made of cork. By rowing the cork rafts the fishermen were able to get to the boats they anchored in the bay.
From the bay shore, we can see a hill or promontory jutting from south to north. At the end of the hill was the widows' fortress. We will later go up that hill.
We've reached the hill, but from here, there is only a stony dirt road. Even though the road here is not very comfortable, the view towards the bay looks absolutely stunning.
From a place where we can see the bay and the coast freely, we have to walk again down the stony dirt road for a few minutes and then we will see a wall structure made of rock about a meter and a half high or so.
There is a sign that reads: "Inong Bale" fortress cultural heritage site. Inong Bale in the local language means widows, meaning widow warriors.
The flowers of a liana were hanging there. Red and beautiful like that wants to show the spirit of the warrior widows.
The structure of the wall extends along the edge of the cliff from southwest to northeast, facing northwest, towards the bay, and after about 400 meters, on its northeast side, it turns southeast, so that the rest of the visible structure looks like it forms the letter L.
Although it can still be said to be quite intact, in some parts there are vegetation growing on the body of the wall.
Fortress side next to cliff.
The structure will appear as a wall structure only if we do not pay attention to some of the curved holes that are open to look towards the bay. Perhaps these were the holes that were used to monitor before the various vegetation that had now grown covered the cliffs. Or maybe the holes were used to place artillery such as cannons and others. The holes are what show us that this is the structure of a fortress to guard the bay and secure various maritime activities there.
The position of this fortress also provides easy access to a waterfront which is located to the northeast, where the location is called Lhokcut. The access was a gentle slope that could be descended easily to the waterfront from which, perhaps, the bay guard could move swiftly toward the sea when it was needed or for patrol purposes. So, I think, this appears to be one of the outposts for the maritime security forces in this bay area.
When I visited the widows' fortress, a group of students happened to be doing archaeological observations assigned by their lecturer.
The location of this fortress provides a beautiful view for visitors, so even though it is remote, it is often visited too. However, this fortress was mostly visited because of the legends associated with it, namely as the fortress of warrior widows led by Admiral Malahayati, a brave warrior woman.