ALMORAH, a small but very curious and interesting town of Hindostan, the modern capital of the province of Kumaon. It is built on a ridge of the Himalaya Mountains, 5337 feet above the level of the sea, and consists chiefly of a single street, about three fourths of a mile long, and about 50 feet wide, which runs along the ridge of the mountain, with scattered dwellings, chiefly inhabited by Europeans, to the right and left hand on the descent of the hill. The main street has a gate at each end; and Bishop Heber mentions that it reminded him, on a small scale, of Chester. The houses all stand on a lower story of stone, where the shops are. This is open in front, while the upper stories are faced with a framework of wood, occasionally carved and painted, supported on the projecting side-walls below, and surmounted by a sloping roof of heavy grey slate, on which many of the inhabitants pile up their hay in small stacks, as winter provender for their cattle. The town is very neat, and the street has a natural pavement of slaty rock, which is kept beautifully clean. It is very strongly situated, and is approached by a long, steep, and winding road, which a handful of men might defend against an army. From Almorah the vast range of the Himalaya Mountains bounds the prospect to the north. Nundidevi, one of the highest peaks in the world, being 25,689 feet above the level of the sea, is within 40 miles from Almorah in a direct line, though it is a nine days' journey by the only accessible road through the mountains. Almorah was conquered in 1790 by the Ghorkhas, who were favoured by the dissensions of the people. It was taken from them by the British in 1815; and in this more recent conquest the inhabitants were also aiding, owing to the cruel treatment they had received from their former masters, who were in the habit of selling, for arrears of rent, the wives and children of the peasants into slavery. There is an old Ghorkha citadel, which stands on a commanding point of the ridge, at the eastern extremity; and several martello towers have been erected in peaks to the eastward. A new citadel, named Fort Moira, has been constructed on a small eminence at the western extremity of the town. It is, according to Bishop Heber, very ill contrived, and incapable of defence against a resolute enemy. The surrounding country is of a bleak and desolate character, and there is scarcely a tree within a circuit of four miles from the walls. The number of houses is about 1000. Almorah is 90 miles north by east from the city of Bareilly, and about 106 miles travelling distance north-east from Moradabad, by the route of the Bamoree Pass and Rampour. Long. 79. 44. E.
Lat. 29. 35. N. (Heber's Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, &c.; Hamilton's East India Gazetteer.)