Mecca Masjid

Lonely Planet review

Adjacent to the Charminar is the Mecca Masjid, one of the world's largest mosques, with space for 10,000 worshippers. Construction began in 1614, during Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah's reign, but the mosque wasn't finished until 1687, by which time the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had annexed the Golconda kingdom.

The minarets were originally intended to be much higher but, as he did with the Bibi-qa-Maqbara in Aurangabad, Aurangzeb sacrificed aesthetics for economics. Several bricks embedded above the gate are made with soil from Mecca - hence the name. The colonnades and door arches, with their inscriptions from the Quran, are made from single slabs of granite that were quarried 11km (7mi) away and dragged here by a team of 1400 bullocks. To the left of the mosque, an enclosure contains the tombs of Nizam Ali Khan and his successors.