Now when you hear someone’s travelling in India, you don’t think they’d be heading to Bijapur (now known as Vijayapura) as a tourist destination, do you? Yes the city has numerous monuments & works of art from over 500years ago and yes the city has the world famous Gol Gumbaz, a monument that was built nearly 500years ago, as a tomb for Mohammed Adil Shah but given the publicity it has, not even a lot of locals within the state or the country know about the place or its history as much as it deserves. It’s honestly such a shame that Tourism India doesn’t promote places like these in the overseas exhibitions & campaigns. Even the Incredible India promotions do not show places like these anywhere within or outside India.
Gol Gumbaz is the tomb of Mohammed Adil Shah, the 7th ruler of Adil Shahi Dynasty who ruled that geography for 30yrs. The simple yet charming design of Gol Gumbaz is an example of architectural excellence of Bijapur. The monument is so amazing that I had to write a separate blogpost just for that. Click HERE to read about my Gol Gumbaz experience.
Bijapur is not only home to the amazing Gol Gumbaz but there are other incredible ancient structures of the Indo-Islamic architecture that is sure to wow anyone. In particular I was totally in awe with the Bara-Kaman, an incomplete monument that was supposed to be bigger than the Gol Gumbaz, if completed. Watching this place in sunrise took me to that destroyed church in Antigua Guatemala as the arches reminded me of that place. It was disappointing that I wasn’t allowed to experience Bara Kaman from its inside, but was still super happy with what I got to see. I reached the place before sunrise and boy did it make for some amazing early morning pictures here.
Just around the corner from Gol Gumbaz is a prominent spot where there’s a canon that’s gigantic in size. During its time it was supposed to the be the world’s largest, and I believe it still is the largest in India. Called Malik-e-Maidan this canon is made of bell metal, measuring 4.2 metres (14 ft) in length, 1.5 metres (~5 ft) in diameter, and weighing in about 55 tons. Not sure how much historic prominence it has but considering there was not a soul in sight at the location when I went there; it felt like not many know about it at all. Fun fact is that it was apparently attempted to be shifted to Great Britain by East India Company as a war trophy, but due to its huge size and un-conditioned transport infrastructure they (EIC) gave up.
There are a numerous monuments in the area, from that era and each one has its own prominence & beauty to it. But the one monument that I found more beautiful than the Gol Gumbaz was Ibrahim Roza. Ibrahim Roza is the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah II with his two sons and his mother on the left and on the right side with a mosque set in a walled garden facing over an attractive pond. Honestly this structure was more amazing than any of my pics can portray. The architecture, the ambience, the details etc everything made for yet another photographer’s delight. I had no clue about the place until I arrived in Bijapur and am glad I got to see & experience it !!
Here are some pics from Ibrahim Roza.
Shivagiri – This is something more recently constructed in Bijapur. Recently as in in the 2000s, unlike all the other historic monuments from centuries ago. Shivagiri is a place that houses the 4th largest Shiva statue in the world and 3rd tallest in India. (Click HERE for the list of tallest Hindu statues in the world) The statue is 85 ft tall, 105ft wide and weighs about 1500tonnes !! The beautiful beige unicolor of the body along with a nofilter evening/night sky for background made this place tantalisingly mesmerising. Totally loved the aura of the place and only wished that the nightfall had not been that quick. Nevertheless the whole park, the setup, the cute Nandi statue all made it for a beautiful experience at the site. I’d love to go back to experience it all over again.
On the whole Bijapur provided a fantastic experience and also made us feel like part of the history. The city definitely is very hustling and bustling but nothing when compared to Bangalore. I loved the roadside Vada Pavs which were super cheap but super-duper yummy. Would I go back if I had a chance? Yes I sure would. Would I recommend it as a tourism destination? 100% Every Indian if possible has to expreince the magic of Gol Gumbaz, admire the beauty of Ibrahim Roza & Bara Kaman and definitely soak in the magic at Shivagiri. These are something that you get to know and feel it only when you are there in person. My words and pictures can only do so much but if you don’t take yourself there, you are absolutely missing out on something awesome !!
Some useful and informative links:
Bijapur – https://www.india.com/travel/bijapur/
Gol Gumbaz – https://www.yatra.com/indian-monuments/bijapur/gol-gumbaz
Ibrahim Roza – https://www.dsource.in/resource/monuments-bijapur/ibrahim-roza
Shivagiri – https://vijayapura.nic.in/en/tourist-place/shivagiri/