Hyderabad

Overview

A Hyderabad city tour is easiest to plan in two halves. The old city holds the monuments left by the Qutb Shahi sultans and, later, the Nizams. The newer districts hold lakes, parks, a film studio complex and the towers of HITEC City. The city dates to around 1591, when Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah founded it beside the Musi River as the dynasty's new seat of government, after Golconda.

Start at Charminar, the monument of four arches and four minarets that the Archaeological Survey of India now looks after. Laad Bazaar, known for jewellery and bangles, runs west of it, and Mecca Masjid stands to the south-west, so the three fit one slow outing on foot.

Chowmahalla Palace was begun in the 1750s and finished in the 1860s. It groups four neoclassical palaces around two courtyards and has been open as a museum since 2005. Across town, the Salar Jung Museum shows what a single collector gathered, more than 48,000 art objects plus thousands of manuscripts and printed books, spanning about two thousand years. It is closed on Fridays.

Out on the western edge, Golconda Fort and the seven royal tombs of the Qutb Shahi sultans, about a kilometre north of the fort's outer wall, tell the dynasty's earlier story. Back in the centre, Hussain Sagar, a heart-shaped lake created in 1562, lies between Hyderabad proper and Secunderabad. A granite Buddha raised on an island in the lake in 1992 is seen from boat rides, and Necklace Road follows the shore.

Food is part of the plan too. Hyderabadi biryani comes in two main styles: kachchi, where marinated raw meat cooks sealed in with the rice, and pakki, where the meat is cooked first. Irani chai is another local staple.

Summers can pass 40 C, the monsoon runs from June to October, and winter nights sometimes dip to about 10 C, so November to February is the comfortable window for walking between sights.

Known for

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