Eshaan Girri

For years, Hyderabad’s Golconda Fort, has drawn tourists by the thousands. With its brilliant acoustic engineering, exquisite architecture with Hindu and Muslim influences, the fort has been a tourist hot-spot.

A source of inspiration to many visual artistes, it also turned muse for amateur photographer Eshaan Girri’s first experiments with the camera.

In 2014, Girri, who is a partner at an export company bought his first camera, and almost immediately fell headlong into love with the city he had been living in but had not really explored for nearly 30 years. “The city of Hyderabad, its grandeur, character and natural beauty suddenly took on a new role in my life – instead of my home, it became my muse,” he said in an interview with HuffPost India. “And Golconda Fort that has been steeped in history seemed to be the perfect place to start.”

Along with these beautiful photographs, Girri unearthed some incredible facts about the architecture. “The place is famous for its acoustics… a clap in the dome of the main gateway can be heard at the top of the hill, almost a kilometre away, which was the best way of sounding an alarm in those days,” he said, also adding that the geometric patterns embedded in the walls helped in overhearing conversations from other rooms. “The Hall of Whispers is where royal ladies entertained guests, and any conversations (even whispers) would be overheard by the king from another room to rule out traitors and potential enemies as clearly as if he were right there.”

Initially built out of mud, the fort was reconstructed in stone by the fourth Qutub King of the Qutub Shahi dynasty to secure it against Mughal attacks. “It’s beautiful yet ominous gateways were impossible to penetrate,” said Girri. “The iron spikes stopped elephants from forcing their way through it, while hot oil was poured from alcoves hidden above to further discourage them. It was eventually seized when a man from Aurangzeb’s staff turned traitor and opened the gates to let the enemy in,” he revealed.
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