Golconda Fort is one of the major tourist attractions in Hyderabad. I shifted from Delhi to Hyderabad in the last quarter of 2009 and visited several tourist attractions with my family thereafter. However we could visit Golconda (or Golkunda) Fort on 26.01.2011 only. We visited in the morning hours and enjoyed a lot from around 10 a.m. to the afternoon time before returning back to our home at B.H.E.L. colony (near Lingampalli). On 13.01.2013, we visited there for the second time, this time during the late evening hours and watched the Light and Sound Show. On both the occasions, the experiences of myself were simply mesmerizing. After the second visit, my daughter urged me to pen a review on Golconda. So, here comes the review.
Golconda Fort is easily accessible from any point of Hyderabad city. It’s situated at around 18 kilometres from my residence, around 8 kilometres from the Secunderabad railway station and around 13 kilometres from the famous Chaar Minaar. Since I visited it during both the main timings, i.e., the morning time and the evening time, I enjoyed the outing in two different ways. The morning and the day time is quite useful in enjoying the geography of the fort containing 9 doors, the lengthy and high walls, the cave-like basement, the ammunition store, the various mosques, the graves, the Madanna Mandir, the Nagina Baagh, the residences of the erstwhile queens and the princesses and also the Bala Hisar which might have witnessed several conferences and seminars. The fort has three lines of influential fortification walls, one within another. The thickness of the very strong outer boundary well varies from 5 to 10 metres.
From the height (Petla Burj), if you cast your eye from any ventilator, not only you will be able to enjoy cool breeze (until and unless, it is a damn hot day) but also have a bird’s eye-view of the city of the Hyderabad. Hyderabad appears to be like a beautiful painting from that height. If the wind is stormy, it may scare someone and it may also touch the soul of a sensitive person like me.
Originally built by the Kaakatiyas of Waarangal and developed by Mohammad Shaah and Qutub Shaah, this fort is spread in 8 square kilometres. However for a tourist, it’s not feasible to roam about the whole area covered by the fort. So, just enjoy the practically walkable and climbable distance. Despite the affect of the passage of time being visible on it, the grandeur of the fort and the time when it was a symbol of glory can be felt quite easily. The famous diamond Kohinoor is said to be mined and preserved here only before it got looted and sent out of India.
On a pleasant weather day, the visit to the fort can be enjoyed like a picnic too. The whole procedure of entering the fort by purchasing entry tickets and thereafter roaming inside is simple. I found the employees working there as customer-friendly and cooperative. During our second visit, after the Light and Sound Show, my wife and daughter forgot their purse and camera on their seats but upon coming to know of it, when we rushed there back, we got both the purse (containing money, driving license etc.) and the camera because the security people had preserved them and they returned them to us without a fuss.
Eatables can be bought from the shops inside the fort and there is a cafeteria also at the top. Outside the fort, there are restaurants aplenty which can be approached for breakfast / lunch / dinner either before entering the fort or after coming out of it, depending upon your own programme. Beautiful pictures of the are also sold there which can be kept as memento. As far as wandering inside the fort is concerned, let me say that the whole fort is beautiful and it’s a pleasure to see different parts of it carrying different significance of their own. The thing, in my opinion, required to enjoy it to the full is your imagination power to visualize that period and those people. Even it is not-so-good, never mind. The Light and Sound Show in the evening (in both English and Hindi) is there to help it.
I found the Light and Sound Show as the best attraction of the fort. Though I have seen the Light and Sound Show in the Red Fort of Delhi too, this Light and Sound Show, taking us back into the bygone era, proved to be an altogether different experience for me. Not only the dialogs and different relevant sounds impressed me and made me feel like watching a good historical movie; but above all, the pieces of music and songs inserted in the narrative depicting the love (male-female) of the characters that existed in that time effortlessly won my heart. Any music lover will be just too happy to witness this programme.
The charges for entering tickets as well as for the Light and Sound Show appeared reasonable to me. We enjoyed the show in ordinary class, however there’s an executive class too with separate seating arrangement. Perhaps that place gives a better sight of the light switching from place to place (in the fort) during the show. I have come to know that there is concession in ticket rates for the school troupes.
I have not given the minute details of the fort as well as its history which must be available on the internet. I just say that Golconda Fort is one of the best places to visit in Hyderabad. I have visited Chaar Minaar on one hand and Ramoji Film City on the other and I frankly admit that my visits to Golconda Fort have been the most satisfying ones. This mighty fort is the pride of Deccan. Once the centre of the Bahmani Kingdom as well as the centre of the diamond-trade, this grandiose fort gives you a call. Whenever you make a trip to Hyderabad, please don’t miss visiting it.