A little bigger taste of India

So after walking all around Shilparamam Crafts Village (which is one place I'm going to visit when I decide it's time to buy a bunch of stuff) I came back home for a quick lunch (food discussion to come at the end of this post). Jaye then came back to we all went to Golconda Fort. There is a ton of history here and would take way too long for me to tell it all. Sooooo, here is a real quick brief history:
King built the fort out of sand...muslim king took over, tore down the fort and re-built in stone that they mined from the actual mountain that the fort is built on. When he did this, he left the original temple built at the top of the fort to show that the fort was a blending of the two religions (hindu and muslim i beleive). Also, when kings died their bodies where taken out through the back entrance to the burial tombs; the big round things you see in the background of this picture -->

The reason for this was after the death of a king, the city/state/nation would go 40 days before the next king was named. During this time they were very succeptable to attack because of the lack of power (power vaccuum). So, when a king died, it was kept a secret until the successor was named.

The fort itself encompases about 7 square kilometers (that's about 2.7 square miles) there are a total of 14 entrances through the first, outer ring wall. The main entrance is built in similar style to european style castles, with the faux main entrance before the main gate. The main gate has a boiling oil/water chute to soak would be attackers (i know it has a name, but i can't remember it for the life of me). Also, directly behind this main gate area is a large domed supported by four pillars (and connected to the gate house). When you stand in the very center and clap, you hear a really qicked echo. If you pay super close attention, the sound is actually echoed 24 times due to the 24 "divets" or vaults in the ceiling around the central dome. Wait there's more... when you step about 3meters in any direction, the you no longer hear the echo even when someone else is in the center clapping, or you clap. The coolest part, i know that's pretty friggin cool right? wait till you hear this, when someone claps the sound can be heard at the very top of the fort at a listening station. this area is nearly 300 yards away and elevated about +100yards. Also, apparently you can communicate from the top of the fort back down to this area in the same manner.

No, this isn't the spot. But, this does show some of the really cool architecture they used. Instead of Completely tearing down the "mountain" they would carve away some of the rock to make bricks and then leave others as foundation supports. Did I mention that the fort took 62 years to build? and that is just the rock version. It was a really cool trip. TONS of walking. It has to be atleast 2 miles round trip from the gate house to the top of the fort and back down. But I will only say this once....

The view from the top of the fort was simply UNBELIEVABLE! You got a 360° view of the city. This picture wasn't even taken from the top of the fort. the building in the middle with all the lights is the room right behind the gatehouse that I was telling you about earlier. The "listening station" is about another 100yards directly behind me ... well not straight back, it's up about another 100 feet or so. I wasn't able to take any pictures from the very top because it was getting too dark and my camera doesn't take very good night shots. However, this area was well lit and we were able to take a couple good shots with the cannon hehehe.

Food

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And here begins my first entry about food in India. This first dish is actually the left overs from my first dinner out with Srikanth. I honestly can't remember the names of either of these two items, but the bread is just plain white bread from the grocery store. The green curry is a chicken based curry with pomagrenite and other veges. It was delicious, even after it was reheated. The second item is cauliflower dipped in some type of herb batter and then deep fried. At the restaurant we tried three different types of bread... two naans and another type of bread that was super thin, thinner than a tortilla. They actually call it handkerchief bread.

This dish, phew man was it good. It's a tomato based gravy with chicken, onions, and red peppers. This was the first really spicy dish I've had since I've been here. It was fantastic. The bread is just butter naan. I think this is my favorite bread. The only problem with it is all the butter makes your hands really greasy. We also had Hyderabad Biryani. You can get it made with any type of meat (cept maybe beef). We had it made with mutton which isn't my favorite meat consequently, this wasn't my favorite dish. I'm gonna have to try it again with another type of meat. Let me knwo if you have any questions about any of the food or anything else I've told you about.