Charminar

Charminar ('Four Minarets') was built in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, to mark the founding of Hyderabad. According to one tradition, he built it to commemorate the end of a devastating plague; according to another, it celebrates his marriage to Bhagmati. The monument sits at the geometric centre of the original Hyderabad street grid — four broad streets running north, south, east, and west from its arches — making the city one of the few in India laid out around a central axis. The structure is a 56-metre square base topped by four 56-metre minarets at the corners, in granulated grey granite faced with carved stucco in the late-Qutb-Shahi Indo-Islamic style. A small Qutb Shahi mosque occupies the upper level (closed to visitors since the 1950s). The two upper galleries — accessible via a 149-step spiral staircase from each minaret — give the best views of Hyderabad's old city. The surrounding bazaars (Laad Bazaar for bangles, Patthargatti for pearls) preserve much of the old-city texture. Mecca Masjid sits 100 metres south-west. Avoid Friday afternoons. The monument is illuminated nightly.