Gulbarga

Gulbarga, the district and divisional head-quarters was formely in the Nizam's state, and is 623 km from Bangalore, and was the first capital of the Bahmanis from 1347.

The Fort here was originally built by one Raja Gulchand, a feudatory of the Orangal Kakatiyas, and was rebuilt by Allah-ud-din Bahmani with 15 majestic towers. Inside the fort is the huge wonderful mosque built by Muhammed Bahmani in 1367 and it covers 38,000 sq. feet area. The place has a huge sprawling complex housing the tomb of Bande `Nawaz, the great Sufi Saint, who came to Gulbarga in 1413. His tomb's walls have paintings and a mosque built by the Mughuls is near the tomb.

The Khandar Khan's mosque and Hirapur mosque (1585) built by Chandbibi are some other monuments here, and the tomb of Sultan Hassan and Firoze Shah are imposing structures. The state Archeology Museum here has Buddhist plaquest brought from Sannati. Durgah Library Houses almost 10000 books on Urdu, Persian and Arabic.

Getting here:

Gulbarga is well connected by road and rail to Bangalore and Mysore. Regular buses ply from Raichur.