Now one of India’s best places to visit, Hyderabad’s Qutb Shahi Tombs complex has been beautifully restored using traditional methods

On the outskirts of Hyderabad, a home of the dead has been brought back to life. The necropolis is eerie in theme, giant in stature, magnificent in design and now key to the growth of tourism in this city. The 16th-century Qutb Shahi Tombs complex is the largest such site in southern India, and its 10-year renovation is nearing completion. About 100 significant structures – tombs, funerary mosques and a mortuary bath – dot this 106-acre necropolis, which is the eternal home of the Qutb Shahis, the Islamic dynasty that founded Hyderabad and ruled the vast Golconda Kingdom from 1518 to 1687. Measuring up to 40 metres (130 feet) tall, the 40 granite tombs are decorated with domes, finials, minarets, columns, archways and intricate stonework. Collectively they’re so striking and significant that the complex is on the tentative list for Unesco World Heritage status. Yet when I first visited seven years ago, this wonder was in decay. Weeds owned its paths, cracks sullied its facades, bulges marred its ceilings and weather had stained every structure. India’s cruise industry sees buoyant future, but blue economy not so green Soon after I left, the cavalry arrived, wielding chisels, hammers and paint brushes. Hundreds of skilled artisans led a project overseen by the Telangana State Government and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture – an NGO that safeguards Muslim cultural heritage in the developing world – to restore the necropolis to its former glory. It was a daunting task. Researchers had taken 3D laser scans of each tomb, mosque, pavilion, stepwell and hammam bath, and prepared 2,500 measured drawings of the site based on archival information. Then the tradesmen took over. In repairing the buildings they used methods, tools and materials – such lime mortar mixed with milk and egg whites – similar to those the original craftsmen would have employed. When I returned to Hyderabad this year, the results were bewitching. Neat landscaping and fresh paths surrounded the key buildings, many of which had been meticulously refreshed. Particularly impressive was the brilliance of the tombs’ stuccowork, which was laden with intricate geometric and floral motifs. Freshly renovated mouldings and lattice windows have enhanced the grandeur of the mausoleums’ interiors. The improvements offer visitors a better sense of just how grand this necropolis was when it was built. The restoration and enhancement project will be complete when the Garden Amphitheatre venue and the Qutb Shahi Interpretation Centre, a museum, have been finished. It’s hoped that what is now called the Qutb Shahi Heritage Park will help draw visitors to Hyderabad. The Telangana state capital, Hyderabad is perhaps India’s most overlooked destination. Few other Indian cities have a historical precinct as huge, distinctive and photogenic as that which encompasses the necropolis and the adjacent Golconda Fort, a 700-year-old citadel sprawled across a hillside. These two sites were the core of the Golconda sultanate. Until the interpretation centre opens, visitors to the Qutb Shahi Heritage Park can learn more of the site’s history in a temporary museum that, through text, photos, maps and videos, tells the bloody tale of the Qutb Shahis, who fought several rival empires and dug the world’s first diamond mine. Buried beneath the towering Tomb of Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk is the man who started it all. The sultan’s final resting place stands on a square, cream-coloured base beautified by decorative arches and is topped by hand-carved minarets and an onion-shaped dome. After emigrating from Persia, Qutb-ul-Mulk became a senior figure in India’s Bahmani sultanate, a Sunni Muslim empire that ruled the Deccan Plateau, in South India. A desire for power drove him to establish the Golconda sultanate, which conquered Bahmani. For 169 years, the dynasty commanded a swathe of southern India. Using its diamond wealth, the sultanate expanded to rule over an area 700km wide and 750km long (435 miles by 466 miles), according to an illustration at the museum. Eight emperors from Qutb-ul-Mulk’s bloodline ruled Golconda before it was annexed by the Mughal empire. Resting in this necropolis are the souls of not just these Qutb Shahi emperors but also their wives, relatives and the dynasty’s nobility, commanders, doctors and courtesans. Those of royal blood reside in the tombs; the others are buried inside or next to the funerary mosques. Also restored are the necropolis’ six stepwells, or baolis, originally dug to irrigate the complex’s orchards. One of them, the hulking Idgah Baoli, is a granite structure that descends 25 metres below the ground and is capable of holding 2.8 million litres of water. The stepwells are now functional again, having been abandoned for centuries. They supply water for the ongoing renovations, and the revival of the site’s gardens. About 10,000 mango, chikoo, jamun and reetha trees have been planted to mimic the lush groves that existed here 400 years ago – their future fruit destined to be the finishing touches on the rebirth of this memorial to the dead.

Now one of India’s best places to visit, Hyderabad’s Qutb Shahi Tombs complex has been beautifully restored using traditional methods

After falling into decay, the 16th-century Qutb Shahi Tombs complex – the largest such site in southern India – has been brought back to its former glory It is hoped that it will help draw visitors to Hyderabad, perhaps India’s most overlooked destination

After falling into decay, the 16th-century Qutb Shahi Tombs complex – the largest such site in southern India – has been brought back to its former glory

It is hoped that it will help draw visitors to Hyderabad, perhaps India’s most overlooked destination