The Charminar

You may be asking yourself "What's the Charminar?" Well, literally translated Charminar means "Four Spires". Fitting name huh?

The Charminar is actually pretty cool. It was build in 1591 by then sultan Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah (pronounced Cooly Ka-tube Sha... I think) to commemorate the eradication of plague that was devastating his kingdom. His kingdom was that of Golconda (see post titled "A little bigger taste of India"). He was the fourth sultan of the Qutb Shah dynasty and founded Hyderabad. The city was named after his favorite dancer who, according to legend, was his lover and eventually became his wife.

There is actually, or was rather, a secret tunnel from the Charminar to Golconda Fort some 10km away. Sorry folks, I would have walked it, but the tunnel has been blocked off for some time now. Oh well. You also can not go any higher than the first terrace level (where you see all the people). It is actually a lot higher up than it looks in this picture. Check out part of the spiral stairs we had to climb to get to the top. Say hello to everyone Dayakar. He is part of the QA team here in India and had the pleasure of taking me on a mini tour around Hyderabad that Sunday.

From the terrace you can see over top of all the surrounding buildings. If it hadn't been overcast, you can actually see the top of Golconda Fort (You could see it, but the picture I took doesn't look like much) and Birla Temple. There is also a really good view of one of the most famous mosques in Muslim faith; Mecca Masjid. It is named such because according to legend, some of the bricks used to construct its main arch were brought to Hyderabad from Mecca.

Construction of the mosque was started by the same ruler that built the Charminar, Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah in 1617. However, it wasn't completed until 1694 by the Mughals who had taken over Golconda. So, for those of you with poor math skills, the mosque took 77 years to build. It was a really inspiring place. Just stepping through the gate and standing next to the pond in front of the mosque, you feel as if you are standing on holy ground.

All around Charminar is a bizzaar filled with handicrafts. This area is actually very well known for it's pearls and bangles and pearl bangles hahaha. I'm actually planning to go back here to do some shopping. I wasn't able to go around very much to really explore all the buying possibilities while I was there. Partly because of how unbeleivably tired I was from travelling all around the previous two days, and partly because I was still adjusting to the new timezone, eating habits, and schedule. The third part was the traffic around Charminar. Because it is the most popular tourist spot in Hyderabad along with all the shops in every direction, the roads are PACKED with cars and "autos." Autos are the three wheeled yellow vehicles you see in this photo. As busy as this photo looks, just think.... I went on a holiday. On holidays, everyone heads home to be with their families, so this is light traffic since there are so few people in the city. I think Ryan saw it during regular busy times. As bad as it was, I can't imagine it being worse than this. I nearly got run over 15 times and I only crossed the road twice!

After the Charminar, Dayakar and I tried to go to the Salar Jung Musuem. We fought our way through all the traffic only to be denied entrance due to the musuem being closed for the holiday. DANGIT! It's ok though, we were able to go the next weekend WOOHOO! We also tried to go ride a camel on the Necklace RD, but were denied that as well... but guess what "we were able to go the next weekend WOOHOO!" hehehe You know you love me and my humor!

You know the best part about ending this post.... I finally finished writting about my first weekend in India WOOOOTAAAAAH!!! Go Matt!