Considered to be a marvel during olden times, the great dam now lay in ruins on the western side of Bhojpur. The dam was built on a vast lake which is no more there. Huge hills enclosed the entire area from all sides, but two big gaps were there that were blocked by different dams. The earthen dams were huge with the bigger one being 44 feet high and 300 feet thick and the smaller one being 24 feet high and 100 feet wide. The construction of the dams was done without using mortar. The dams held up water of about 250 square miles. Few believe that the dams were built by Raja Bhoj, but they were probably built before his time.
Their was a huge lake on west of Bhojpur whose remains can still be found at the site. Lake was made due to the dam constructed on the Betwa river. Dam was another example of great skill and engineering wonder. Dam was special as a natural wall of hills enclosed the whole area except two gaps of 100 yards & 500 yards in width. These gaps were closed by mammoth dams having face of sand stone. Many of such sand stones were 4 ft long 3 ft broad and 2.5 ft thick. All of them were set without using mortar. The smaller dam is 24 ft high and 100 ft. thick in base where as the largest one is 44 ft high and 300 ft thick from base. It results in to a water reservoir spread over 250 sq. miles of area. This lake was destroyed by Hoshand Shah of Malwa (1405-1434 AD). As per Gond legends, it took 3 months to the destroyers to cut through the dam and lake took 3 years to dried up and its bed was not habitable for next 30 years. It had made permanent change in climate of Malwa.