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The knowledge about origin of Umerkot is such a riddle, which has not yet been solved with any degree of success by scholars. The founding of the fort is supposed to have taken place along with the town itself. The present fort, however is not that old but recorded to have been constructed by Mian Noor Muhammad Kalhora in 1746.

The fort is roughly rectangular in plan measuring 292m x 228m. The fortification wall, which is 3m in width, gives a tapered look both on the exterior and interior. It has four semi-circular bastions at the corners. At present one of the bastions has completely vanished while still another reduced to shambles.

The walls and bastions have burnt-brick facing with the filling of sun-dried bricks or simple mud and earth.

The main gate, also known as Shahi darwaza, is situated roughly in the middle of the eastern wall. In plan, it is a crooked type of entrance, with an arched opening and a couple of bastions, all built in sand stone. The parapet, which seems to be of later period, is built in burnt-bricks and has musketry holes.

Almost in the centre of the fort, in front of the main entrance or Shahi gate mentioned earlier, is a large burj or watchtower. A flight of 58 steps, about 3m wide, is provided on the eastern side. The burj is a little over 17m high from the level ground.

On the top of the burj are fixed seven cannons with their barrels jetting out of the parapet. These cannons ret on platforms constructed on an equal distance from each other.

Immediately south of the burj is a British period circuit house still in use even after over hundred years of its existence.

In addition to the main Shahi gate the fort now has two simple entrances. The one with a rampart on the outside opens on the Umerkot-Mirpur khas road, a little east of the northwestern bastion. The other doorway opens in the middle of the western fortification wall, opposite Circuit House. Both of these entrances, devoid of any special features, are simple doorways probably opened during the British Period.

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