Golconda Fort

Today we went to Golconda Fort. It is about 30 minutes from Hyderabad. "Golla" means "shepherd" and "Konda" means "hill". The guide book says "There is no recorded history of Golconda previous to 1364A.D." so I guess they think it's older than that, but no one wrote about it until 1634. As with most histories and descriptions here, there are a great many vagueries involved. It was capital of something (more vaguery) begining in 1512A.D. But it doesn't seem like it was much good because the first three rulers who used it as there home met with bad endings. One of them was "put to death while he was engaged in prayer in assembly mosque of Golconda Fort."
The fort is HUGE. it's easily one or two miles across in either direction, and it rises high onto the tallest hill in the area. As you can see from the pictures the area is pretty flat so from the top of the fort you can see way off into the grey horizon.
We had our pictures taken a lot as we hiked up the endless stairs. Lots of people approached us and asked if they could get a picture with us. Heather managed to get a shot of a couple of them. That is one mighty orange shirt that happy bastard is wearing.
That reminds me, men here hold hands with each other MUCH more openly than they do back home. Homosexuality is very closeted here, but straight men just walk down the street holding hands. But they get VERY uncomfortable when they see a man holding hads with a woman. Some of the crazy younger guy-girl couples will hold hands or wlk close together, but for the most part etiquette calls for the man to walk a step or two in front and the woman better keep up because there is no such thing as holding a door for her. I'm trying to get Heather to walk behind me, but she won't do it for some reason.