You do not have to be a Sun Tzsu to understand the strategic significance of this fort. 
4000 feet above sea level. 1000 feet elevation from the ground. Clear visibility for miles around. Line of site to four other forts. This think looks impregnable.
The views are breath taking unless you were one of the 16 century Mavalas trying to scale these rocks with bare hands.
The fort is about 30 KM from Pune where the national Defense Academy is based. "Singad" is the most often meted out punishment to discipline the NDA cadets. the cadet leaves at sunrise, sprints from Kadakvasala to the top of the fort (without using the road) and back before lunch. An average cadet does this 20-25 times during their 2 year tenure...
You enter the fort from Pune Darwaza (or Pune gate).
You see Daruche Kothar (ammunition store) on your right, one of the only surviving building. And it survived because the English - who destroyed everything else on the fort - used it as a church.
{Daruche Kothar - ammunition store }
On the left are little cubicles carved into the mountain - Ghodyachi Paga - Horse stables.
To my (untrained) eye, the architecture and design seems out of place. Especially the tunnels (following picture) makes it look more like the cave temples of Ajanta which is interesting as Ajanta predates the fort by about 400 years!
{Ghodyachi Paga - Horse stable - from the inside}
The path suddenly brings you to Tanajichi samadhi - Tanajis's resting place - the most spell binding story connected to Sinhagad.
This place is not where the story starts though.....It does not even start on this fort.
It starts on Rajgadh.
Shivaji had to hand over Kondana to the mughal emperor Aurangzeb as a part of the Purander treaty. Within months of escaping from Delhi and returning to the Sahyadris, Kondana was one of the first forts he wanted back and picked childhood friend, lieutenant and experience campaigner Tanaji to lead.
Tanaji staked the fort for 9 days by living under disguise of a Gondhali in a small village called Umbarthe at the foothills of the fort. He realized that Udaybhanu, the rajput fort-keeper had secured every possible entry point into the fort - except one sheer cliff which was considered unclimbable.
On the no-moons night of 4th of Feb 1670, while the force on the fort was in the midst of a drunken orgy, Tanaji lead 500 Mavalas - Maratha soldiers to the fort, He got Suryaji, his brother to lead 300 of these and hide outside Kalyan Darwaza, the main door during those times
The remaining 200 scaled the impossible cliff in absolute darkness with a stiff tropical wind blowing across the face of the smooth rock using basic ropes.
{Donagiri kada - use the trees on the top - each about 40-50 feet tall for scale}
By the time Udaybhanu collected his soldiers and mounted a counter, the Kalyan Darwaza has been opened from the inside and let the 300 force in.
Infuriated that his defense had been breached, Udaybhanu attacked Tanaji. What followed was a sword skirmish battle which moved almost 3/4 of a kilometer on the fort. At one point Tanaji lost his shield to a Udaybhanu blow and under the force of sheer adrenalin is said to have used his left hand to ward off the sharp steel. the battle ended the only way it could have without either warrior loosing face - Tanaji and Udaybhanu killed each other almost simultaneously.
Shelarmama and Suryaji ensured that the remaining Maratha force surged ahead and took the fort from a force 3 times theirs.
The next day when Shivaji was told about Tanaji, he uttered the immortal words " Ek gad ala pun ek sinha gela" (I won a fort but lost a lion). Kondana was hence forth called Sinhagad or the Lion Fort
Other vignettes
{The famous fort lunch}
The mobile grocery
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