I spent six hours today seeing some of the sights of Hyderabad. I have to say that I was blown away: it’s a fabulous city. (This will seem unfair to my colleagues in Pune; after all, I never had an opportunity to get a similar tour of their city. Next time, I hope.) Everywhere you turn are broad avenues, elegant domes, and statuary.
The highlights follow; unfortunately in some places photography was not permitted:
Sri Venkateshwara Temple. A symphony in white marble, providing a wonderful view over the city as well as a moment of peaceful – albeit alien – ritual.
A drive through the Bergum Bazaar and the old city to see the Chaminar, an exquisitely-proportioned four-square tower.
The Salar Jung Museum. This is a huge, rambling, eclectic, confusing, and ultimately wonderful museum, based on the private collector of a former Prime Minister who devoted himself to art during the first half of the 20th century. There’s something for everyone there. Obviously there’s Indian art: painting, carvings, ivory, jade, manuscripts, fabrics, metalwork, pottery, bronze sculpture, furniture, weapons, toys, and even wildlife (stuffed). But there are also collections of art from around the world. There’s a French room, with one of the nicest Bouguereau’s I’ve ever seen, entitled Biblis. There’s a wonderful collection of (mostly French) clocks. There are excellent collections of Japanese and Chinese art and artefacts. It’s fantastic, it’s overwhelming – after 75 minutes my head was full, so I bought a VCD (video CD) film about the collection, and fled.
Golconda. The name itself sounds magical. As soon as I knew I was visiting Hyderabad, I was determined to see the ruins of this legendary fortress and palace. Here’s my guide, showing the map of the complex.
We went up the main path to the pavilion at the top of the fortress, then descended the steep King’s Path into the palace complex. We spent about an hour altogether, stopping to hydrate and take in the details. I took lots of pictures; eventually I’ll put together a decent gallery. For now, here’s a view from the top looking down on the palace.
From Golconda we drove 3 kilometres to the Grand Qutub Shaha Tombs complex, where the kings and queens that ruled Hyderabad and Golconda in the 16th and 17th centuries are buried. I was starting to feel the heat a little (around 90F), so rather than exploring the whole site I asked my guide to show me around the tomb of Hayat Bakshi Begum (that’s me in front of it),
and then we just sat and talked for half an hour, about the tombs around us, and about each other. He was a nice guy, a college student, aspiring to be a Chartered Accountant.
And at that point I was ready for a shower and a long cold drink, so we returned to the hotel. Of course as soon as I entered my room, the power went off, so rather than showering in the dark I started work on this blog entry. Since the power is now restored, I shall post it and head off to get clean.