Yesterday we were taken on a tour of the major historical sites around the city…

We started off at the Qutub Shahi Tombs.  The are has around 30 tombs, and a few mosques, from the Qutub Shahi dynasty; which lasted for around 170 years.  The structures vary in size, and the surrounding gardents are absoultely beautiful.

Next, we moved on to the Old City section of Hyderabad.  There we were able to see Charminar, an old hospital, and the Mecca Masjid.  Charminar is the center of the old section of Hyderabad, and the structure is over 400 years old; it was also built turing the Qutub Shahi dynasty.  The other building that is adjacent to Charminar was used as a hospital.  I’m not sure of the history of the building, but our tour guide said it had been used as a hospital at one point.

Just down the street from Charminar is the Mecca Masjid, which is the oldest and largest mosque in Hyderabad (possibly in all of Andhra Pradesh).  The mosque is currently under construction, but we were able to enter the grounds.  The girls all had to wear head coverings.  Luckily, we went on our shopping excursion the day before and most of us were wearing our new outfits; complete with dupattas (the long scarves worn with Salwar Kameez).

From Charminar, we walked down to Chowmahalla Palace.  The grounds are absolutely beautiful, and the entire time we were there my mind was buzzing with design ideas.  We had an hour or so to walk around the complex before we were brought into one of the side buildings for lunch on site.  We were served authentic Hyderabadi Biryani and Naan (which is very different from the naan back home) along with a few other dishes.

Finally, we headed to Golconda Fort.  Unfortunately, my camera died as we were leaving Chowmahalla.  So, I don’t have any pictures of Golconda.  We arrived and had a bit of a climb to the top, but from there you could see for miles and miles.  There was a small hindu temple near the top, and there were beautiful rock paintings of gods.  After spending some time at the top of the fort we made our way back down to watch a ‘Sound and Light’ show, which started just after sunset.  Colored lights and speakers were set all over the fort, and the show told stories of the fort’s history.

View from the bottom.

Light show.

7 Wonders of Hyderabad - Not exactly the best looking site, but it has a lot of information on a few of the places we visited.

More photos at www.flickr.com/photos/sheraray

**The photos of Golconda and the Mecca Masjid are not mine, but all of the others are.