Linda and Mals Asian Adventure: Bijapur

Bijapur: After a prolonged period of bright sunny weather it all went rather dull in Bijapur, the scruffy dirty town looked really drab. Bijapur has a lot of ruins which to be honest are hard to tell from most of the other buildings in the town. That said the Golgumbaz Mausoleum is really a bit special. It has a 38 meter diameter dome which is apparently on second in size the that in St Peters Basilica Vatican City. The most impressive part was for sure the "whispering gallery" where a singe whisper can be heard ( apparently ) across the dome. This however attracts the local Indians to screech like banshees, the echoes are repeated 10 times and the noise is just deafening, really painful to the ears but really quite fun, seeing it's a Mausoleum no one pays any respect and its just one huge noise. Bijapur is a predominantly Muslim town and has some of the best and oldest Mosques in India, The Jama Masjid mosque being a centre piece with an intricate golden door in the main prayer hall. One of the best sights in Bijapur has to be the Ibrahim Rouza a twin building islamic monument, the dull weather failed to dent the appearance of this huge building whose two main mausoleums are not too dissimilar to the Taj Mahal.

Bijapur is an old fortified town and much of the walls and fortresses have long since collapsed, on the edge of town there are still huge gun towers with still intact canons, the best being the Gagan Mahal. Parts of the old town citadel are intact but the moat is used mostly for dumping rubbish, sad rally as it would be a simple job to make it look half decent. Apart from a few gems Bijapur really wasn't that great, worth a day stop for sure.