Chowmalla Palace
This is one of the many palaces of the nizams, who were the regional leaders of the area (area= anywhere from half of India to finally just the state of Andra Pradesh over the course of a few hundred years). The man who took us here used to be the director of the place for about 6 years and was really informative about the restoration process of just about everything. He had a pretty tight relationship with the family of nizams that was left and so told us some fun stories. He also had access to everything, so we got to go behind any roped off areas and into this super secluded guest house area where they still let high officials and visitors stay when they come into town.
Charminar
To find out what this is, we'll break it down a little bit.
charm= the power or quality of delighting, attracting, or fascinating others
inar= a Hittite god of woods and fields.
That doesn't sound quite right, maybe we should use Urdu. Ah yes, here it is:
Char= 4
Minar= Towers
So it's the 4 towers, which is twice as good as the two towers. If you thought Daniel had a thing for the two towers, you should have seen his joy when we got to see FOUR towers. As Adam (our guide/friend) explained it, there are other places similar to the charminar in other places of India, but this is one of the most extravagant. In ancient times (or pre-widely used compass times) when a traveller came into a city they could use the charminar as a guide post, as each arch points to one of the cardinal directions (North, South, etc, not like the ones dressed in red with funny hats). In addition, they could use the shelter provided from the charminar to rest before they began their journey again.
Since it is also near the palace and the main part of the city, it is surrounded by tourists and merchants. You can buy anything your heart desires (as long as your heart desires fruit, jewelry, or imported goods from China). However, if you want to park, you will have to either be on a motorcycle or find a spot half a mile away, since neither of those conditions fit us, we admired the building from our air conditioned car.
Golconda Fort
Built originally of mud in the 13th century, Golconda Fort is an impressively large structure with amazing acoustics. If you go on a Sunday afternoon (like us) then you may be just as impressed by the mass amount of tourist as you are by the mass amounts of rock. Although there are signs up to encourage you to respect the ruins, you can find many children (or childish adults) running around on top of structures, around barricades, and hanging from various heights to impress their friends. It's a nice little hike to the top of the fort and a pleasant view and breeze to meet you when you reach it.
This is one of the many palaces of the nizams, who were the regional leaders of the area (area= anywhere from half of India to finally just the state of Andra Pradesh over the course of a few hundred years). The man who took us here used to be the director of the place for about 6 years and was really informative about the restoration process of just about everything. He had a pretty tight relationship with the family of nizams that was left and so told us some fun stories. He also had access to everything, so we got to go behind any roped off areas and into this super secluded guest house area where they still let high officials and visitors stay when they come into town.
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| View from one of the courtyards |
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| Just a decorative cannon. Only would have been useful if there had been an attack on their pond. |
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| I love these flowers. |
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| Hall where the nizam would sit when there were formal gatherings. |
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| Adam explaining about how he found all these weapons in a well he excavated. |
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| SWORDS!!! |
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| Riding around in style was important. |
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| Hanging out in another courtyard. |
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| I really like these trees, but the sun was so bright. |
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| Books from a secret library. |
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| Daniel would make a great nizam. |
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| We were meant for royalty. |
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| If I knew Arabic or Hindi, this library would have been even more awesome. |
Charminar
To find out what this is, we'll break it down a little bit.
charm= the power or quality of delighting, attracting, or fascinating others
inar= a Hittite god of woods and fields.
That doesn't sound quite right, maybe we should use Urdu. Ah yes, here it is:
Char= 4
Minar= Towers
So it's the 4 towers, which is twice as good as the two towers. If you thought Daniel had a thing for the two towers, you should have seen his joy when we got to see FOUR towers. As Adam (our guide/friend) explained it, there are other places similar to the charminar in other places of India, but this is one of the most extravagant. In ancient times (or pre-widely used compass times) when a traveller came into a city they could use the charminar as a guide post, as each arch points to one of the cardinal directions (North, South, etc, not like the ones dressed in red with funny hats). In addition, they could use the shelter provided from the charminar to rest before they began their journey again.
Since it is also near the palace and the main part of the city, it is surrounded by tourists and merchants. You can buy anything your heart desires (as long as your heart desires fruit, jewelry, or imported goods from China). However, if you want to park, you will have to either be on a motorcycle or find a spot half a mile away, since neither of those conditions fit us, we admired the building from our air conditioned car.
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| It's a pretty big deal. |
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| Want a backpack? How about a pile of clothes? |
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| The Charminar! |
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| Some paan that we had after a meal of Hyderabadi Biryani. |
Golconda Fort
Built originally of mud in the 13th century, Golconda Fort is an impressively large structure with amazing acoustics. If you go on a Sunday afternoon (like us) then you may be just as impressed by the mass amount of tourist as you are by the mass amounts of rock. Although there are signs up to encourage you to respect the ruins, you can find many children (or childish adults) running around on top of structures, around barricades, and hanging from various heights to impress their friends. It's a nice little hike to the top of the fort and a pleasant view and breeze to meet you when you reach it.
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| The doors had spikes on them to prevent against elephant attacks, something you don't see in Europe. |
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| I love the peaked arches. |
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| Some of the outer walls. |
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| The forts! (and some lawns, nice for a picnic) |
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| A view of the fort and city. |
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| Panorama of the fort and a lot of Hyderabad. |
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| This kid followed us for like 20 minutes trying to sell us cotton candy, eventually we just gave him money and took his picture. |
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