Rohtas Fort is the main reason to come to Jhelum, and it delivers. Built by Sher Shah Suri between 1541 and 1548 on a strategic ridge overlooking the old Shahi Road — the main artery between Kabul and Delhi — the fort was intended to intimidate and control the route through the Salt Range. It succeeded on both counts. The walls run for more than 4 km around the perimeter, broken by 68 bastions and pierced by 12 monumental gateways. It is one of the largest and best-preserved examples of early Mughal-era military architecture anywhere in South Asia, and the UNESCO inscription in 1997 was entirely deserved.
The gateways are the architectural highlights. The Sohal Gate and the Langar Khani Gate are massive affairs of dressed stone and decorative brickwork, with projecting towers and arched niches that combine Afghan and Hindu Rajput influences in a way that was new in the subcontinent at the time. Sher Shah employed craftsmen from across his empire, and the eclectic synthesis shows. Inside the walls, the fort contains mosques, a baoli (step well), residential buildings, and a small museum in the visitor centre near the main entrance. The scale of the whole thing — 70 hectares enclosed by those kilometres of wall — takes some time to absorb.
The fort is about 16 km from Jhelum city; a taxi or tuk-tuk from the town centre will get you there in half an hour. Allow at least two to three hours to walk the perimeter properly and explore the gateways. The site is open daily. A small village has grown up inside the walls, which adds an odd domesticity to the ruins — you will pass vegetable gardens and washing lines alongside the medieval stonework. Nearby, just outside the northern edge of the fort, Gurdwara Chowa Sahib marks a site sacred to Sikh pilgrims.