India Guide
Andhra Pradesh
Golconda Fort
Address: 11km west of old Hyderabad
Price: Rs100; tombs Rs10
Opening time: Daily 9am–5pm; tombs daily except Fri 9.30am–4.30pm
Well preserved and set in thick green scrubland, 122m above the plain, Golconda is one of the most impressive forts in India. Capital of the seven Qutb Shahi kings from 1518 until the end of the sixteenth century, when the court moved to Hyderabad, the citadel boasted 87 semicircular bastions and eight mighty gates, four of which are still in use, complete with gruesome elephant-proof spikes.
Entering the fort by the Balahisar Gate, you come into the Grand Portico, where guards clap their hands to show off the fort's acoustics; the claps can be clearly heard at the Durbar Hall. To the right is the mortuary bath, where the bodies of deceased nobles were ritually bathed prior to burial. If you follow the arrowed anticlockwise route, you pass the two-storey residence of ministers Akkana and Madanna before starting the stairway ascent to the Durbar Hall. Halfway along the steps, a small, dark cell was named after the court cashier Ramdas, who while incarcerated here produced clumsy carvings and paintings.
The ruins of the queen's palace, once elaborately decorated with multiple domes, stand in a courtyard centred on an original copper fountain that used to be filled with rosewater. You can still see traces of the "necklace" design on one of the arches, at the top of which a lotus bud sits below an opening flower with a cavity at its centre that once contained a diamond. Petals and creeper leaves are dotted with tiny holes that formerly gleamed with rubies and diamonds.
There are 82 tombs about 1km north of the outer wall. Set in peaceful gardens, they commemorate commanders, relatives of the kings, dancers, singers and royal doctors, as well as all but two of the Qutb Shahi kings. Faded today, they were once brightly coloured in turquoise and green; each has an onion dome on a block, with a decorative arcade. Reach them by road or, more pleasantly, picking your way across the quiet grassy verges and fields below the battlements.