Qutb Shahi Tombs

The Qutb Shahi Tombs lie in the gardens of Ibrahim Bagh, close to Golconda Fort on the western side of Hyderabad in Telangana, India. They are the mausolea of the rulers of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, which governed the Golconda sultanate from 1518 to 1687, and the seven principal tombs were built between the 16th and 17th centuries, the earliest being that of Quli Qutb Mulk, the founder, who died in 1543. Later monarchs, including Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah and Muhammad Qutb Shah, each received a large domed tomb, and members of the royal family, courtiers and physicians are buried in smaller structures nearby. The complex is a rare surviving ensemble of Indo-Persian funerary architecture in the Deccan. Each tomb stands on a raised square platform, with a central dome over a square chamber, surrounded by arched verandahs. The larger monuments are two storeys high with domes set on petal-like drums, and the walls are built of granite and finished in lime plaster, once decorated with coloured tiles and carved stucco. Inscriptions in Arabic and Persian identify the burials, and the Qutb Shahi kings' cenotaphs are placed within the domed chambers. The tombs were long neglected and overgrown, and a major conservation programme led by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, working with the Telangana government, restored the masonry, recreated missing plasterwork, repaired domes and re-landscaped the surrounding gardens, including the lawns and pathways. The site is on the UNESCO tentative list. There is no museum, and the experience is that of walking between monuments in a park setting with small notice boards at some tombs. The setting is calm, and the site is often visited together with Golconda Fort and the Taramati Baradari nearby. Visits typically last one to two hours, with the tombs best seen in soft morning or late afternoon light.