Golconda Fort

Golconda is a fortified citadel and ruined city on the western outskirts of Hyderabad, India, begun as a mud fort in the eleventh century under the Kakatiya ruler Pratapa Rudra and later transformed into a massive granite fortification about 5 kilometers in circumference after Sultan Quli Qutb Shah refortified it beginning in 1518. The Qutb Shahi dynasty ruled from Golconda until 1590, when the capital shifted to nearby Hyderabad, and the fort's outer wall of some 10 kilometers encloses four distinct forts, 87 bastions and eight gateways along with temples, mosques and royal apartments. It became famous as a center of the diamond trade, its vaults reputedly having held stones later known as the Koh-i-Noor and the Hope Diamond, and its entrance is noted for an acoustic effect in which a hand clap beneath the dome can be heard at the Bala Hisar pavilion, nearly a kilometer away at the fort's highest point. Golconda fell in 1687 after an eight-month siege by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, ending Qutb Shahi rule.