Kempegowda Towers - Marking the boundaries of Bangalore

Kempegowda was the founder of Bangalore and he had created 4 watch towers that marked the boundaries of Bangalore to which he had thought that this city would extend. Let me take you this tower trail. I will go in the order I had covered these towers with some interesting story telling in my blog here.

 

South Tower  – Lalbagh


Lalbagh Botanical gardens is the most famous spot in Bengaluru and is a paradise for early morning joggers. While taking a stroll along this huge garden, the huge peninsular genesis definitely cannot be missed. So Kempegowda tower is perched on top of this peninsular genesis marking the southern tip of Bangalore. This is the most visited amongst all the towers. Please note that you will need to buy tickets to enter Lalbagh.







 

West Tower  – Gavipuram


I got a chance to visit the tower located in this area during a Gavipuram Heritage walk conducted by BengaluruPrayana. This tower is located next to the Bande Mahakali temple. There are clearly marked steps that you need to take to make it to the tower on top. This marks the Western tip of Bengaluru.






 

North Tower  – Mekhri Circle


Visiting this tower was luck by chance for me. There was a planned meet up with my ex-colleagues at one of the restaurants near Mekhri circle. While I was waiting for them to arrive, this Ramana Maharishi park was located right behind the restaurant. So I decided to visit the Kempegowda tower located inside this park. This tower also is easy to locate since it its right in the center of the park. This marks the Northern tip of Bangalore.




 

East Tower – Ulsoor lake


This was long pending and hence my blog also got delayed due to this. Yesterday I happened to meet a friend at Trinity metro station and we both decided to visit this since she had a car. But unfortunately you cant go closer to the tower since its located inside the defense area where common public are not allowed.  We took an entire round of the lake to spot this tower but couldn’t get a good picture of this. You really need to zoom a lot but clarity is not that great. This marks the Eastern tip of Bangalore.


Pic Courtesy - Arun Bharadwaj (@thelightbaggage)


This Kempegowda tower is allowed for public on June 26th which marks the birth anniversary of Chieftain Kempegowda. This year I was out of town around this time. So I had requested one co-traveler from our BengaluruPrayana traveler community to share the pic with me. 


Pic Courtesy - Shane Lobo

Pic Courtesy - Shane Lobo



Today Bengaluru has grown beyond the limits which Kempegowda had imagined but these 4 towers stand prominently in the heart of the city and can be easily explored. In fact, one can even plan a tower trail and cover all the 4 towers in a day. So next time if you are bored in Bengaluru, you have one interesting activity to do😊. 

 

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