Alibag is a coastal town and a municipal council in Raigad District of Maharashtra. It is the headquarters of the Raigad district and is south of the city of Mumbai. Alibag is part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Alibag is a coastal town and municipal council in Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. It is the headquarters of the Raigad district.
Revdanda, Chaul, Nagaon, Akshi, Varsoli, Thal, Navgaon, Kihim and Aawas villages were known as "Ashtagare".
Alibag 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.[1] A Bene Israelite named Ali used to live there at that time. He was a rich man and owned many plantations of mangoes and coconuts in his gardens. Hence the locals used to call the place "Alichi Bagh"(Marathi for "Ali's Garden"), or simply "Alibag", and the name stuck.
Alibag houses a magnetic observatory which was set up in 1904.[2] 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.