Srirangapatna Island Fortress and Tipu Sultan Heritage, Mandya

Srirangapatna in Mandya district, an island in the Cauvery river, was the capital of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan's Mysore Kingdom and the site of the 1799 siege in which Tipu Sultan fell fighting the British. The island fortress contains Tipu's Summer Palace (Daria Daulat), the Lal Masjid, the Ranganathaswamy temple (far older than Tipu's period), and Tipu's mausoleum (Gumbaz) — extraordinary monuments concentrated within a 4 km island. The Daria Daulat's murals depicting the 1780 Battle of Pollilur, where Hyder Ali defeated the British, are among the most significant historical paintings in India. The Srirangapatna fort's fortifications along the Cauvery banks are engineering marvels — the island was considered impregnable until the British found an unguarded gap in 1799.