Alibag

Alibaug or Alibag is a coastal town and a municipal council in Raigad District of Maharashtra. It is the headquarters of the Raigarh district and is south of the city of MumbaiHistoryAlibaug is a coastal town and municipal council in Raigarh district of Maharashtra, India. It is the headquarters of the Raigarh district. Raigarh's first name was "Kulaba". It was developed in the 17th century by Sarkhel Kanhoji Aangre the naval chief of King Shivaji's Kingdom. Revdanda, Chaul, Nagaon, Akshi, Varsoli, Thal, Navgaon, Kihim and Aawas villages were known as "Ashtagare". A naval battle was fought at Varsoli between Kanhoji Aangre and Siddi of Janjira in 1706. In 1722 English and Portuguese jointly attacked on Kulaba fort, and they lost this war. At Chaul there was a battle between the English and Sakhoji in 1730. Sakhoji won and brought down the losing party along with their captain at Kulaba. Kanhoji even issued his own currency in the form of a silver coin called the Alibagi rupaiya.Alibaug and its surrounding villages are the historic hinterland of Bene Israeli Jews. There is a synagogue in the "Israel Ali" (Marathi इस्राएल आळी meaning Israel lane) area of the town.Alibaug houses a magnetic observatory which was set up in 1904. It serves as one of the significant observatories forming part of a global network now run by Indian Institute of Geomagnetism. The observatory has two buildings; the first building has magnetometers that record changes occurring in the geomagnetic fields. The second building consists of precision recording instruments, which give data about geomagnetic storms caused by solar storms which is shared with other countries.