I recently visited Hyderabad and it’s one of my favorite places due to many reasons. I have been to Hyderabad couple of times and one of the reasons I love Hyderabad are that my local guides journey started during my first visit to Hyderabad. My first contribution is the photo of the Hotel which we stayed during my trip to Hyderabad in 2017 and that’s how I became a Local Guide. In my recent visit, I had plans for shopping and was also planning to visit few tourist places in Hyderabad. When googled for best tourist places to visit in Hyderabad, places such as Charminar, Golconda Fort, Salar Jung Museum, Chowmahalla Palace, etc were listed. I had been to Charminar already and I decided to visit Golconda Fort after checking it in Google Maps.
Brief History of Golconda
Golconda Fort (round hill in Urdu) which is also known as Golla Konda (meaning shepherds’ hill in Telugu) built by Qutb Shahi dynasty and it’s surrounded by diamond mines especially Kollur mine which produced world’s famous diamonds including Koh-i-noor which is now owned by United Kingdom. It comes under UNESCO World Heritage site. The siege of Golconda occurred in the year 1687 which led by the Mughal emperor, Aurangazeb and captured Golconda Fort after eight months of siege.
My visit to Golconda
I took an autorickshaw from the city to Golconda Fort and reached around 2PM. The ticket price is ₹30/- for Indians and ₹300/- for foreigners. ₹25/- for video camera. (You can confirm ticket price when you plan to visit it). I visited Golconda fort alone and when reached the location, I bought the ticket and entered the fort and there was a usual crowd in the Fort even during the weekdays as I visited it in the last Thursday. Along the walkway, there is a guide map of the Golconda Fort which includes the point of interests inside the Fort. On walking along the way, there is the big entrance and the details are provided in the side which says it’s called Balahissar Gate.
Right from the entrance to inside the fort, all along there is an accessible pathway provided and I was really surprised to see it since I truly appreciate the effort put by the management to provide accessibility facilities which enable differently-abled people to visit it. When I checked with one of the staffs regarding accessibility inside the fort, inside I got to know that most of the point of interests are accessible.
After taking few pictures from the entrance, I went inside and walked along the pathway and there are many walkways inside the fort and the structures are marvelous. As there are many point of interests, I got to Aslah Khana which is a three storied structure and it looked beautiful and I was amazed to know that the structure is datable to 16th century AD.
All along the walkway, there are so many structures which I visited inside the Fort and it felt amazing. I took lots of photos along the way.
We had to climb to hill top through stairs to reach the top of the Fort where there are many point of interests of the Fort such as Mosque, Temple, Baradari (Darbar Hall), etc. which seemed to be non accessible but so many other point of interests inside the fort are accessible. While climbing to the hill top, I totally enjoyed the view of the structures inside the fort which got better and better and the view of city looks so beautiful from the top.
There are many securities inside the fort who guides and monitor visitors for places to see inside the fort. There are some canteens available inside the fort where you can buy some snacks, etc. I got to see a jail on the way to the top which we cannot go inside, a mosque, a temple and then reached the Baradari (Darbar Hall). I really enjoyed a lot and I was able to get some good photos.
After sometime, I walked down and I got to see walkways for many other point of interests which I couldn’t able to visit it and when I followed the walkway for a distance the accessible pathway was there all along the way.
Then I get to the entrance of the fort and I noticed that there are guides available who were explaining tourists about the fort. It was a wonderful experience visiting Golconda Fort for the first time and I am sure I will visit it again whenever possible. I was able to visit Chowmahalla Palace too on my visit to Hyderabad and I will share my experience about it in upcoming days.
Hope you like my experience. Take care, stay safe and Peace.