The historic fort city of Maheshwar stands on a high landform at the northern bank of the Narmada river. It is a part of the Nimad region which covers the whole of western Madhya Pradesh. Other important historical places of the region are Ujjain, Omkerashwar, Mandleshwar.
The fort hill on the northern bank of the river is a isolated hillock with no other high hills nearby. It is primarily made of yellow clay with intermediate layers of hard chalk like substance , which provides the mud its rigidity. The land on the northern bank of the river shows no sign of rock for a depth of about 10 to 12 meters, while the southern bank is rocky. At the ghats , the land slopes steeply in the water with the average depth being more than 30 meters, while the maximum is said to be more than 75 meters.

 A Brief History

The Narmada basin has numerous archeological sites. Excavations carried out in the Maheshwar region have yielded tools pertaining to stone and copper age.

In the 16th century AD, during the reign of Emperor Akbar, Maheshwar was established as a military center along with Burhanpur. After the fall of the Mughal empire, Malha Rao Holkar became the ruler of the territory and made Indore his capital in 1730 AD.

In 1776 AD Ahilya Bai Holkar took over the administration and shifted the capital to Maheshwar. In the next 28 years till 1795 Maheshwar underwent a massive reconstruction programme. The fort was strengthened and modernised by increasing the height of fort walls and redesigning the merlons for the contemporary weapon systems. A number of temples ( 91 in all ) and ghats were constructed along the length of the river.

The following work was undertaken at the site.

The Fort Wall	The Rajwaadas	Restoration Pictures
The lower part of the fort wall at many places is made of rounded river stone. These igneous rocks are smooth on the surface and they do not form a good grip with the lime mortar, also they have large mortar joints. Majority of collapse has happened with these type of walls. Restoration of the South and West walls.	Contructed in 1766 AD by Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar, the Rajwada is a modest building built around rectangular interlinked courtyards. It also houses the State Archaeological museum. Many parts of the building today are vacant or are locked. On the western side of the wada are the orchards. Restoration works on the distressed portion of LINGARCHAN and AHILYA wada	Click Here for new restoration pictures