Golconda Fort

With Steve as my companion, I've seen a lot more of Hyderabad  in the last few weeks.  We've been to the zoo, the national park (KBR), the Salar Jung museum... but my favorite so far is Golconda Fort.

Hyderabad sits on a plateau of granite rocks.  The builders of the fort took advantage of that to create their fort about 400 years ago (I think. You can look it up.)  As with everything in Hyderabad, it was a long cab ride from the hotel. Normally, there would be a small entrance fee, but last Sunday was a festival day so it was free.  We never did find out exactly which festival it was; the location of the fort has something to do with Tamil culture. 

It was very crowded near the entrance, with "official" tour guides trying to engage us and many people carrying all sorts of bags and containers -- turns out that these were picnic supplies.  We pressed onward and upward. There was some kind of music blaring from speakers high above us.   It was hot, humid, and steep.  We stopped to rest at an overlook and a guy approached, asking if he could take our picture.  Okay, sure -- so we posed for a few cell phone pictures with his friends.  They were a group of guys from Tamil Nadu.  We kept going, and resting, and each time we stopped there were people wanting to take our pictures.  It got kind of ridiculous, and Steve starting quipping, "That'll be 50 rupees..... 100 rupees.... 150 rupees."  The younger women and girls especially would get shy & giggly about posing with us.

Eventually, we realized that there were many separate processsions going on.  A couple of guys would be carrying a pyramid-shaped thing, and a few women would follow, each carrying something on her head -- an oil lamp of some kind, or a plate of bread or fruit.  Some of the women were carrying what looked like powdered dye -- orange & yellow -- and they would stop and paint the steps going up to the top of the fort.  Many of the women were barefoot and their feet were also stained or dyed orange or yellow.  We tried to be respectful and stay out of the way. 

We stopped before the very top of the fort because it seemed to be a sacred place -- people were removing their shoes and leaving them behind -- and we didn't want to intrude. When we got back down to the bottom of the hill, it was crowded with families.  Some were tending smoky fires within the old stone walls of the fort.  Some women had brought their goats.  (My friends at work say the goats would be slaughtered on the spot.) All in all, it was a crowded and festive scene.  And we were the celebrities -- always surrounded by the papparazi.