Charminar
Also known as: Char Minar
The four-minaret monument built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah at the centre of his new city of Hyderabad. Persian and Indo-Islamic forms; an upper-floor mosque is the oldest in the structure.
History & Story
Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah built Charminar as the geometric heart of his new city, with four roads radiating from it to the cardinal points, the intersection forming Hyderabad's original crossroads. He reportedly prayed here during a plague epidemic, vowing to build a mosque if the city was spared. The upper-floor mosque, reached by a narrow spiral stair inside a minaret, is still in active use over 430 years later. The four-storey structure was also designed as a madrasa, dispensing education from its arched galleries to students of the new city.