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Bijapur

Writer's picture: Sam MendelsohnSam Mendelsohn

Updated: Sep 16, 2024



Bijapur was, by some non-fact-checked estimates, the most populous city in India (and consequently one of the world’s most populous cities) for a brief period during its prime in the mid-17th century. This is interesting because I knew literally nothing about it before going other than it was supposed to have some nice Islamic tombs. My wife hadn’t even heard of it. That Bijapur was the capital of the Adil Shahi dynasty which ruled a huge chunk of South India was news to me! (I’ve since learned considerably more about the Deccan sultanates and am pretty embarrassed at how little I knew before, but visiting Bijapur was a good jumping off point.) It was also news to me that Bijapur’s iconic Gol Gumbaz had one of the largest domes in the world for hundreds of years (and it is said to have inspired Mumbai’s GPO building). 


Whether or not you’re especially interested in the history, you should find Bijapur’s architecture to be noteworthy and interesting because in addition to being grand and beautiful it has a unique fusion of Islamic and South Indian Hindu styles, which is very noticeable even to the untrained eye (I saw this attributed to the influx of artisans from the defeated Vijayanagar empire as well as a general syncretism of the sultanate, at least for parts of its history). 


Other than a few outstanding monuments and a vast collection of more minor ones in the city of ruins that has been overtaken by a busy small town, Bijapur is mostly charmless, and it’s not a place to plan an entire trip around unless you’re a huge history nerd. However, it’s totally worth a detour if you’re going in that direction, and it’s worth being clubbed in with some nearby places.  Going from Bijapur to Badami to Hampi, or the reverse, is very easy and highly recommended. We did this starting from Kolhapur and met someone on the same itinerary starting from Goa. You can see more photos from this whole trip in my wife's Instagram stories.


We went in February 2023 and were told that Bijapur will get an airport in late 2023, but as of publishing this in July 2024 there is still no airport but it is said to be almost ready. I don’t know how regular flights will be and where you can fly from, but it could make such an itinerary much easier depending on where you’re coming from. If there are flights from where you live, I’d definitely recommend Bijapur as a great weekend trip, even if you don’t have time to club it with anything else.