The Charminar: a city built around four minarets

The Charminar is not just a landmark — the entire walled city was laid out around it as four arteries radiating from the four cardinal arches.

Built of granite and lime mortar, the structure rises 56 metres including the four 48-metre minarets that give it its name ("char" = four, "minar" = minaret). Each side has a high arched entryway opening onto one of the four roads that bisect the old city.

The second floor houses a small mosque — one of the oldest in Hyderabad — and the building's symmetric Persian aesthetic became the template for future Qutb Shahi monuments including the Mecca Masjid next door.

During the Asaf Jahi era it was renovated multiple times; a chunk of the south-east minaret fell during a 1671 storm and was rebuilt. Modern conservation by ASI continues; some of the most visible damage today is from vehicle pollution and informal commerce in the surrounding market.