Heritage Hyderabad
To India and back I had a rather long and lazy holiday. All my weekdays were the same. Slept late reading books, woke up late into the day, ate breakfast at lunch time and lunch at tea time, watched a couple of movies on TV and then chat a little with the family and then back to reading a book till late in the night. Occasionally I skipped a movie in the afternoon to go shopping.
Weekends however were different.
I reached on a Saturday so the first weekend was absorbed in my fake jet-lag. What it means is that I practically slept all the time I was not awake to eat or bathe.
The second weekend we went to the Golconda Fort. I have never been there before. It was enormous. I had not expected that. I think a second visit is needed. We didn't climb up all the way to the chambers and we didn't stay for the laser show which was supposed to be the highlight. Quite a historic place. It was built by the Kakatiyas in the 13th century, taken over my the Bahmani Sultans, expanded by the Qutub Shahis and finally left to its fate by the Nizams who moved to Hyderabad.
The second weekend we visited family friends in Warangal. Warangal has a lot of heritage sites in and around. The city was the rich capital of the Kakatiya empire. We missed the Kakatiya festival that happened the weekend earlier. We visited the 1000 pillar temple but unfortunately in the night the photographs were blurry and most parts of the temple grounds were closed for renovation. The place of worship was still open and functional. It is a very large Shiva Lingam.
A few minutes drive away lies the Bhadrakali temple. A very large area right next to a beautifully maintained lake. It also has a natural stone that looks like a face. The photograph again was in the night so it isn't clear but you can see the semi face stone in it.
The next day we went around to the Warangal fort. Another 13th century structure, it was completely destroyed I believe. However, the archaeological society is doing a great job in extracting pieces of stone and putting the pieces together like a puzzle and we have beautifully reset stone archways and statues and framework pieces and chariot and whole structures together. This was by far the best thing on the trip!
This is the original layout
And these are a few restorations.
Weekends however were different.
I reached on a Saturday so the first weekend was absorbed in my fake jet-lag. What it means is that I practically slept all the time I was not awake to eat or bathe.
The second weekend we went to the Golconda Fort. I have never been there before. It was enormous. I had not expected that. I think a second visit is needed. We didn't climb up all the way to the chambers and we didn't stay for the laser show which was supposed to be the highlight. Quite a historic place. It was built by the Kakatiyas in the 13th century, taken over my the Bahmani Sultans, expanded by the Qutub Shahis and finally left to its fate by the Nizams who moved to Hyderabad.
The second weekend we visited family friends in Warangal. Warangal has a lot of heritage sites in and around. The city was the rich capital of the Kakatiya empire. We missed the Kakatiya festival that happened the weekend earlier. We visited the 1000 pillar temple but unfortunately in the night the photographs were blurry and most parts of the temple grounds were closed for renovation. The place of worship was still open and functional. It is a very large Shiva Lingam.
A few minutes drive away lies the Bhadrakali temple. A very large area right next to a beautifully maintained lake. It also has a natural stone that looks like a face. The photograph again was in the night so it isn't clear but you can see the semi face stone in it.
The next day we went around to the Warangal fort. Another 13th century structure, it was completely destroyed I believe. However, the archaeological society is doing a great job in extracting pieces of stone and putting the pieces together like a puzzle and we have beautifully reset stone archways and statues and framework pieces and chariot and whole structures together. This was by far the best thing on the trip!
This is the original layout
It was a great trip. I need to do more travelling around in India.
Back after a vacation and into the new year now... back to cooking, cleaning, working and archery. Actually my first archery session back was pretty pathetic, almost like I forgot everything ! Or, time to buy a bow...
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