Charminar

Inside Charminar

One weekend, I've forgotten which by now, a group of us went to Charminar in Old City. It's a pretty famous monument + mosque; if you want a picturesque structure to define Hyderabad this is probably it. It was built in the 1500s during Muslim Mogul rule of Hyderabad.

Traffic going into Old City is horrible. I enjoyed driving down the small streets for sightseeing purposes but they definitely were not built to handle the traffic of today. Even after the street widens out into a roundabout around Charminar, it is still packed with auto rickshaws and cars and pedestrians and vendors of all sorts. That being said the actually monument is very pretty. At the bottom it's an open square with pillars that you should climb up to get the full effect. The staircase is a really tight spiral that goes up pretty high. Dizzying. After going up and taking pictures we went to vendors along the street. Charminar is famous for the lakh/lac bangles they sell. Apparently people come from all over to buy bangles for weddings and special occasions. They're just glass bangles with designs and stones set into them. Incredibly pretty and colorful.

View from the top of Charminar

Next we visited the Nizam's museum which was located in an old palace. No pictures were allowed but think of the usual museum ware. My favorite pieces were a model of the palace done in silver and an elaborate gold baby crib for some royal child. And they said they had one of the oldest working elevators! Even though the items in the museum might've been cool the palace was not kept up very well. In the picture below you can see how old the building is. Inside it's dark and I saw water marks and even a little puddle by the window. I could tell the palace had been absolutely beautiful but I think it'll be so much better when it's repaired to its original glory. I understand architectural restoration might not have been a priority for the city as it tried to develop economically and such but now I think the city could definitely turn its eye towards its historical monuments. They're really beautiful and shouldn't be forgotten and left to rot.