The site was
nominated in 1993 by the Pakistan National Commission for UNESCO world
heritage status, and has since been on the tentative list of UNESCO World
Heritage Sites. The fort is listed as a historical site under the
Antiquities Act, 1975 and its subsequent amendments, and is provided
protection.
The original purpose and architects of Ranikot Fort
are unknown. It was formerly believed that the fort was built during the
regimes of the Sassanians, the Scythians, the Parthians or the Bactrian Greeks,
however, more recent evidence shows that the fort originated under the Talpurs.
Archaeologists point to the 17th century as the time
of its first construction but Sindh archaeologists now agree
that some of the present structures were reconstructed by the Talpur
dynasty in 1812 at a cost of 1.2 million rupees.The battlements of
Ranikot formed the last capital of the Amirs of Sind, when they were brought
under the colonial rule of the British Empire. Radiocarbon tests were
conducted at the Sann Gate on the charcoal embedded in the mortar of a
collapsed pillar of the eastern gate of the fort.
