monolithic doors, Hampi

Forts gateways have massive doors, they are usually made of wood. At Hampi, close to Maha Navami Dibba (the great platform) is a pair of doors made of stone. Each door is made of single piece of stone, they are sculpted to look like wooden doors with metallic studs. Each door has a shaft at the bottom which fits into a hole enabling the door to be swung open/close. I'm assuming the face seen is the outer face.

Here's the other door which seems incomplete and damaged. The doors' approximate dimensions- 4 feet x 15'. Wondering why the builders wanted stone doors.. these are heavier than wooden one hence requires more effort to swing them. Probably, the idea was to create an all-stone structure. Hampi is the only place I've seen stone doors.

For ancient people stone was the favorite raw material, they could almost create anything. You can see stone ladders at Jain Basadi, Pattadakal and Lad Khan Gudi, Aihole. Then at Khasa Matha at Gurmitkal you can see a stone cauldron with a dent. The second item at Khasa Math is a ball trapped in a cage made of a single stone. The stone seems hard and the ball is a perfect sphere. Then there's a prehistoric drum Hire Benakal hill which supposedly booms when struck with a wooden stick. Of course I have to mention the bell stones found naturally. So there's a special connection between man and stones.

Coming back to Hampi, close to the doors is the entrance to Mahanavami Dibba enclosure. We have pass by fort walls built over boulders. The builders had plans to utilize those boulders since they have quarry marks.

A line of pits is the first step to break a stone with straight edges and flat faces. This ancient technique is still in use. So geology and petrology was part of their work.

I guess petrology, study of rocks, would be an interesting subject. Something I wish to explore.
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