Located at Bilot Sharif, Dera Ismail Khan district, KP province of Pakistan these temples and fort belong to the Hindu Shahi and date back to 700-800 Ad.
It is said that Raja Til of that time had a son named Bil and so the place was named after his son Bil as Bil Kot.
When Muslims arrived the place was named Bilot and then Bilot Sharif.
An interesting thing is that these forts were constructed at high hilltops and I and my friend were joking that the first thing the armies that attacked these forts must have done would have been asking for water at the gates hahaha and also that height would have made the impact of arrows even more severe and fatal for the attacking forces.
So as I said there were temples too, they had these amazing carvings all over them. All I was thinking was how those people would have done this all and how would have they lived here. These structures are made of honey-combed drab-colored stone which was brought in here from Khushalgarh on boats through the nearby flowing mighty mysterious Indus river.
Aryan race came to India around 1500 BC and settled down around the Indus Valley. They established themselves in the river valleys of Punjab, before moving towards Ganges plains. This period is known as the Vedic period and the holy scriptures of the Hinduism, Vedas, were written during this time. So this area became the cradle of Hindu civilization. For the next 25 centuries it was an important area of Hindu culture and religion, until the arrival of Muslim by the end of the 10th century AD.
These forts must have been very safe as there was just one way to reach them and there were high mountains in all other directions. The structures had strong stone bases and were still looking tough. Some remains of once the impregnable walls still exist. Govt of the KP province is working to restore these amazing places which was an exciting thing for us.
It was one hell of an experience for us friends. We are on a mission to discover places which are not really talked about and our people don't know much about. We talk about them and share our experiences with others to promote tourism in our own way haha ;p We realize that these are our roots, our heritage and we have to protect it.
Your amigos :3 xD
