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Nighoj potholes

29 August 2011 24 Comments

Nighoj potholes (कुंड)
Located around 20 kms from Chincholi is a village called Nighoj.
No, we are not talking about this sleepy village in rural Maharashtra which comes alive only during Janamashtami festival when lakhs of devotees throng to witness a miracle, that of an earthen pot of water coming out of a well in the village. There is an interesting story attached to it which shall be told at a later date.

Instead, we are here to see another wonder of nature…. the potholes of Nighoj !

nighoj potholes @lemonicks.com

Have you seen such river banks?

This place needs to be seen to believe, a must see if you are in the vicinity. These beautifully shaped natural potholes in the riverbed are some of the largest in Asia according to geologists, but very few of us have even heard of them.

nighoj potholes @lemonicks.com

A newly built suspension bridge on the river

The river Kukadi flows near the village. It is said that at one point, sudden geological disturbances occurred and a huge canyon was formed. The river flowed through this canyon with a great force forming huge holes in the rocks.
These potholes are spread over three kilometers with an average depth of over 100 feet.

nighoj potholes @lemonicks.com

You can see the dam at a distance

This is a geographical phenomenon where the pebbles that are carried by the river get locked in the cracks developed in the basalt rock riverbed. These pebbles swirl around due to the water current & form pot shaped cavities in the basalt rock. The process has taken over thousands of years. There are other theories also but we are not here to discuss them.

nighoj potholes @lemonicks.com

Do you see smooth round shapes? Rocks resemble some kind of sculptures.

Most of the rocks are black/ dark gray colored but if you see closely there are layers with a tinge of red too. The thin layers of green & white marble look like markings and are very prominent.
At places it resembles naturally formed rock sculptures. We spent around two hours admiring in awe & taking photographs which will be uploaded soon.

How to reach Nighoj: Nighoj is 90 kms from Pune and 245 kms from Mumbai.
Directions from Mumbai-
• Get onto Mumbai pune expressway
• Travel about 85km on the on the expressway, cross both tolls and take somathane exit which goes to the Talawade IT Park.
• Get on to NH4
• Take left after railway bridge of Dehu road station. You will see the station on the left. This is Talawade road.
• Travel for 5 km then turn right for IT park.
• Go straight 10 km after turning right. You will reach a T junction. This is Pune Nashik road. Turn Left here
• Travel till Khed ( 20km), just before Khed Bus Stand turn right it is a bit sharp, more like inverted ‘V’
• after 1km you will reach Y junction, take left. pass by retavadi, Gosasi, Pabal .. total 20 Km
• After coming out of Pabal take left turn.
• Go another 10 KM, you will see boards for Morachi Chincholi Village on the right.
• There are places to stay inside the village and also outside if you bypass the village.
• Continuing on this road for 20 km after passing Maltan, Takli Haji take a right. Small road sign direct you to “Nighoj Kund”
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24 Comments »

Anjuli said:

What awesome pictures– I could imagine spending many hours looking at everything! I look forward to hearing the interesting story which you said you will tell in the future!!
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# 30 August 2011 at 5:38 AM

Shrinidhi Hande said:

reminds me of Hogenakkal in Tamilnadu Karnataka border
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# 30 August 2011 at 6:52 AM

Nisha (author) said:

@Anjuli,
The place is interesting. Will share some private photos with you.

Oh the story ! It’ll come.

@Shrinidhi,
Now you gave me one more reason to visit Karnataka!

# 30 August 2011 at 9:21 AM

Anu said:

Nice pics.. the bridge is new.. wasnt there when we went!
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# 30 August 2011 at 9:55 AM

Siddhartha Joshi said:

Wow…this is quite awesome! I am super duper keen on going thr myself
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# 30 August 2011 at 11:06 AM

Niranjan said:

Nice place Nisha.. There is a similar place near bangalore called Mekedatu.

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# 30 August 2011 at 12:07 PM

sujatha sathya said:

looks beautiful
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# 30 August 2011 at 3:20 PM

Chintan said:

this is quite a place indeed, haven’t heard of it….thanks for sharing

# 30 August 2011 at 5:04 PM

Rajesh said:

Beautiful shots of the place. Would love to see it in person.
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# 30 August 2011 at 8:50 PM

bikram said:

Well is the story true.. does the earthen pot come out ..

lovely pictures ..
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# 30 August 2011 at 9:03 PM

sm said:

beautiful pics

# 31 August 2011 at 1:05 AM

Arti said:

Wow!!
Looks quite other worldly!!
On my visiting list now:)
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# 31 August 2011 at 11:26 AM

Anjuli said:

You have been nominated for the Liebster Award- you can go to my blog to see what it is all about.
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# 31 August 2011 at 1:36 PM

Neeraj said:

India is full of hidden gems… no?
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# 1 September 2011 at 7:28 AM

Manish Kumar said:

Quite an interesting place. Thx for this informative post.
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# 1 September 2011 at 10:24 PM

kavita said:

This is so amazing .Very nice captures .I will click enlarge the pictures right after this comment.Thanks for sharing this .
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# 2 September 2011 at 6:21 PM

kavita said:

hmmm….. can’t click on pictures .
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# 2 September 2011 at 6:23 PM

Nisha (author) said:

@Kavita,
I have disabled the option. Give me sometime, I’ll upload larger versions on Facebook.

# 2 September 2011 at 6:26 PM

arvi said:

Great Photos. Worth a visit.

On a lighter side though…

Why would one go all the way to this place when we can enjoy all the potholes in Mumbai roads itself

Keep it up!

# 3 September 2011 at 10:27 PM

Appu said:

Very nice. Added information – how to reach. Excellent.
Thanks for sharing.

# 5 September 2011 at 10:32 AM

Suzy said:

What an interesting landscape! Those potholes look more like another planet.
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# 10 September 2011 at 7:36 PM

Sabrina said:

Love the pics! I think it’s so cool that they look like statues
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# 13 September 2011 at 1:08 AM

ATUL DHAWANE said:

Very nice photographs of great work done by river…& a good discription too…by the way- thin layers of green & white markings visible are not of ‘marble’.these are the joints filled with zeolites &/or greenish coloured secondary infilling minerals. a must place to visit by a student of geology.

# 23 September 2011 at 2:55 PM