To fully appreciate Kalat’s natural impregnability, backtrack 3km to the Mashhad road tunnel. The cliffs here are otherwise only breached by a very narrow gully stream guarded by the fortified Borg-argavan Shah, an iconic if small, round, mud-brick tower. Just beyond this (visible from the streamside below) the Katibeh Nader is an inscription on the cliff-face praising Nader Shah with poetry in Turkish and Farsi. Climb to various rocky outcrops for spectacular views across the Darban village area ringed by bright-red laterite slopes.
