Padmavati Temple

There is a small fresh water lake on Padmavati Machee. The chor darwaza leads to here directly. The walls of the lake are intact even today and the lake never dries up (even in the hottest summer). Once you climb the fort, it would be a good idea to remove your shoes and relax a little by dangling your feet in the water. There are small fish in the lake and they come to nibble at the dead skin on your feet.

There are 3 machees on Rajgad. One of the best maintained is the Padmavati Machee. This was a military base as well as a residential area.

This is situated on the eastern part of the fort. This machee narrows down in width as one proceeds farther along its length. At the start of the machee, there is a hill called 'Duba'. As we proceed ahead, there is a small temple of Lord Hanuman. Straight ahead from this temple leads to the second stage, from where the fortification starts. If you turn right before the steps leading to the fortification and walk a little, you will come across a giant hole in the rock face. This is about 3 m in diameter and has been carved by the force of wind. This hole is called 'Nedh' or 'Hatti Prastar'. It's possible to climb into this hole for a good view. At the base of this hole is an idol of Lord Ganesha and one can reach a second Gupt Darwaza from here. This doorway is called 'Madhe darwaza'.

This extends approximately for 2½ km and has been constructed in three phases. For each phase, an armoured fortified place is provided. There are many cisterns on this machee. There is also an underground escape route (unusable now) which leads directly to the outermost fortification.