Photo 982(5)

Genre: Architectural Photography

View looking towards the Tomb of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. 'The tourist who travels to India in search of the grand and picturesque, will scarcely meet in the 'Land of the Sun' a more splendid monument of its bygone greatness than awaits him when, after toiling up the narrow spiral stairs of the tomb of Kullee Kootub Shah, he stands on the landing at the base of its dome, and rests his weary frame on the parapet that surrounds it. All around beneath him, in mouldering ruins, lies the 'City of the Dead', its majestic domes and minarets towering above the tall cocoa and palm trees, that make but a pigmy attempt to lift their tops as high as the former. Unfortunately for the art, photographs are but 'bits of scenes', and the photographer is compelled to select the 'bits' in the subject-matter of scenery that are best suited for a photograph. It was the artist's intention to take, in a series of plates, a connected view of the 'City of the Dead', as seen from the tomb of Kullee Kootub Shah on all sides; but fearing that the same continued subject would fail to interest, and labouring under many photographic difficulties in the accomplishment of it, he was compelled to abandon the scheme. However, by placing the Fort of Golconda (No. 9) to the left of this view (No. 5) and Nos. 6 and 7 in succession to the right of it, you will have a pretty fair connected view of the 'City of the Dead', from south-east to west, as seen from the spot where this photograph was taken.'

[Albumen print, 248x198mm].

Subjects = Indian architecture; Indian architecture (Islamic); tombs