ANDHRA PRADESH

Historical Monuments

• CHARMINAR - a major landmark of Hyderabad with four graceful minarets located in the old city. It is built by Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah as a memorial for plague victims. Charminar in most occasions is used to represent the city and the state and is hailed as a unique Deccan monument. It is in the midst of Charkaman which are four archaways leading to roads in all four directions of the Charminar monument.

• Charminar is always on the top of the mind of any tourist visiting Hyderabad. To say that Charminar is a major landmark in the city is to state the obvious, to repeat a cliché. The great monument is a synonym for Hyderabad and the pivot around which the glory and history of the city have developed.

•  To imagine this 400-year-old city without Charminar is to imagine New York without the Statue of Liberty or Moscow without the Kremlin. Built by Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah in 1591, shortly after he had shifted his capital from Golkonda to what now is known as Hyderabad, this beautiful colossus in granite, lime, mortar and, some say, pulverised marble, was at one time the heart of the city.

•  This great tribute to aesthetics looks sturdy and solid from a distance but as one moves closer, it emerges as an elegant and romantic edifice proclaiming its architectural eminence in all its detail and dignity. Apart from being the core of the city’s cultural milieu, it has become a brand name.

• Charminar is a squarish structure with four towers in the four corners of the square, each of whose sides is 20 metres in length. Every side opens into a plaza through giant arches, which overlook four major thoroughfares and dwarf other features of the building except the minarets. Each arch is 11 metres wide and rises 20 metres to the pinnacle from the plinth. The minarets soar skywards by 24 metres from the roof of Charminar. Each minaret has four storeys, each looking like a delicately carved ring around the minaret. Some Anglophiles call Charminar the Arc de Triomphe of the East. From the ground to the apex, the minarets cover a length of 48.7 metres. According to Mir Moazzam Husain, a long time official of the UNESCO and a keen student of this historic city, “these minarets may even symbolise the first four khalifs of Islam, but I cannot vouch for this interpretation with any degree of certainty.”

• At the western end of the roof of Charminar is a beautiful mosque; the oldest in Hyderabad, and the rest of the roof was used as a court in Qutub Shahi times. Atop the great monument are 45 prayer spaces for the devout where they can offer worship in an atmosphere unspoilt by the bustle of the city. East of this space is a spacious verandah with small and large arches in the middle. The first floor has beautiful balconies from where one has a fantastic view of the historic city and its later accretions.

•  The Charminar or the four minarets is magnificent square edifice built up on four granite arches facing North, South, East and West. This square edifice, is in the heart of city was constructed with plaster and stone. Its foundation corners lie exactly towards the four cardinal points each side measuring 60 IL length and 42 ft. in width. Its main building consists of four splendid arches one in each direction, measuring 24 by 40 ft. facing each, on four highways. Several stairs lead to the upper portion having four ininaretes (80 ft. high) each of which is again sub divided into four storeys and last upper place consists of one mosque a school and name of this building in Arabic was Ya Hatiz.

•  This construction date will come out in this world, 1160 Hijri. The entire building was built of lime and stone full of fine decoration. The height of each minar from the ground level is 180 ft. It is a protected monument. A good scenery is visible when one climbs the Charminar top most storey of the Minaret. The suburbs can be seen from this place.

• The first floor of the monument was used as a madarasa (college) during the Qutub Shahi period and the second floor has a mosque on the western side.

• It also offers an excellent panoramic view Golconda Fort.
  Just a glance of the monument takes you back into time and recaptures the glory of Hyderabad during the Qutub Shahi times. Charminar is definitely an inseparable part of the history of Hyderabad. He built the Charminar to mark the end of plague in the Hyderabad city In the evening, with illumination, the great Charminar looks even greater.

• With the passage of time the Charminar occupied so much importance that it became the heart of all bustling activities. It is in the bustling bazaars around the Charminar that you find the traditional nahari stalls and kulchas of Hyderabad. Hyderabad is one of those few cities, which have a fine blend of modernity and tradition.

• A small mosque adorns the top floor of the Charminar. This mosque is situated on the western side of the Charminar facing Mecca, the holy city of the Muslims. This mosque is said to be the oldest surviving mosque in Hyderabad city.
•  Charminar, the hub of Hyderabad city, has four wide roads going in each direction. The Charminar is square in shape, each side measuring 100 feet, with a central pointed high arch at the cente
• Timings:                          9.00 am - 5.30 pm (Open all days)
  Entry Fee:                      Rs. 5 for Indian Nationals, Rs. 100 for Foreign Nationals
  Video:                             Rs. 25