Qutb Shahi tombs

Domed mausoleums of dark basalt rise from raised terraces in a walled garden at the foot of Golconda Fort. The Qutb Shahi tombs hold seven of the eight sultans of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, which ruled Golconda and founded Hyderabad, together with queens, princes, physicians, courtesans and commanders of their court. Each royal tomb follows the same scheme: a square or octagonal chamber surrounded by pointed arcades, one or two storeys high, crowned by a dome, with the sarcophagus in the chamber standing above the real grave in a crypt below. The forms blend Persian and Indian traditions, and the domes were once faced with blue and green glazed tiles, of which only traces survive.

The sequence begins with the tomb of the founder, Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, built during his lifetime in 1543 on a terrace about 30 metres square, its octagonal chamber setting the model for his successors. The tomb of his son Jamsheed, of 1550, is the exception: two storeys tall, slender, and the only royal tomb here not built of black basalt. The mausoleum of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fifth sultan and founder of Hyderabad, completed in 1602, is considered the grandest, standing on a terrace about four metres high. Close by are the tomb of Hayat Bakshi Begum, daughter, wife and mother of sultans, the great mosque built beside it in 1666 with fifteen small domes and two minarets, and a mortuary bath where royal bodies were washed after being carried out of the fort through the Banjara Gate. Only the last sultan, Abul Hasan, is missing: he died a prisoner of the Mughals and was buried at Khuldabad.

In the dynasty's time the tombs were richly furnished with carpets, chandeliers and velvet canopies, and the garden hosted free evening entertainments for the poor. During the Mughal siege of Golconda in 1687 the tombs served as barracks and gun platforms. They were later restored under the Salar Jung family, and from 2013 the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Telangana heritage department carried out a long conservation programme, including the complex's stepwells. The tombs are part of the Golconda monuments of national importance and were placed on UNESCO's tentative list in 2014.

Getting there

The tombs lie in Ibrahim Bagh, just north of the outer wall of Golconda Fort, about 6.5 km from central Hyderabad. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD) is about 18.5 km away.