Sheppard hill, yes I am speaking about Golconda, the Telugu word Golla Konda which comes from the belief that a Sheppard boy came from across from an idol on the hill.

Today the fort may not have any evidence of this, but this is the history. This fort is famous for many things, it’s security system, ingenious water supply system, mix of Hindu and Mughal culture, garden, Palace, Armor storage and history of diamonds.

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This fort is located 11km from the city of Hyderabad. After reaching here, you may think that this fort is built in the middle of the town, actually it may be other way round. Entry fee is nominal, but there are standard charges for guide. Guides will show standard rate card along with their visiting cards. They negotiate at two levels: one for complete and second for partial tour of fort. They will explain the coverage on map. We hired a guide.
May be I share my experience of this visit by taking each point above one by one. This fort has a unique security system. It may be useless against current weapons and current communication systems, but it was of great use then. It wasn’t any fancy system, but a wall surrounding entire fort, high fort walls, angled and nailed doors so that elephants cannot be used to break the doors and finally the echo system used to communicate with people at the top of fort. Considering the kind of weapons used those days, it must have been of a great help to stop enemy at distance, and also to communicate with Kings. Now how the guide shows you the echo system is very interesting. At the bottom, he will show you where to clap and when you reach on the top again he will ask someone to clap at bottom by signaling from top. Now there will be n-number of people clapping around, it is up to you to differentiate between the sound coming from bottom, if at all coming, and the sound around you. May be the guides put their best effort to show you this system working but they cannot control the crowd, hence it is difficult to see it working. Honestly, I could not hear the clap coming from bottom. Good Luck to you!!!
The fort contains many ponds/lakes and the water was lifted and supplied to this fort using this system. At present, I could find no working system which can supply water to the top of fort. But there are remains which tell that there was a very good water supply system on fort. Many broken pipes along walls and lakes can be observed on the fort as a sign of this system.
This fort contains good mix of Hindu and Mughal culture. You can find mosques and temples on the fort. Also there is a place where it is said that Maharashtrian saint Ramdas Swami was kept in prison. Hence you can find people of both the religions coming and worshiping on the fort. Good to see this thing happening.
Considerably big garden can be seen in one section of fort almost at the bottom. I could see no flowers or many trees, but yes a very good lawn is there and can be enjoyed to spend some time and relax.
Few old weapons are stored in the weapon storage. You can see a couple of stone like balls, these are supposed to be cannon balls. Two guns are arranged at the door of this fort.
This fort was a house of few famous diamonds in the history. Though this fort has now stones of remains of earlier mud construction, but once upon a time it was a big market of diamonds. There were many mines around this city and fort. Don’t go digging on the fort, you will find nothing. Instead, now you can get good pearls in the city of Hyderabad, but may be nothing on the fort. It is said that the famous Kohinoor diamond was also there on this fort for some time.
Many Royal tombs are around the fort. Qutb Shah and many other kings ruled this fort. The top building can be used to get good view of city. Just ensure that you don’t disturb people, especially youngsters enjoying peace out there.
A good structure to see and feel the history.

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