Includes FREE planning and background information. Andhra Pradesh is not going to hit you over the head with its attractions. It doesn’t brag about its temples or talk about its colourful history. It does not name streets after its long roster of enlightened beings. It’s forgotten most of its palaces and royal architecture – the extreme wealth of most of the last 500 years is apparently no big deal – and if you don’t purposely seek them out, they’ll be missed. No, to travellers, Andhra Pradesh is not flirtatious. Andhra prefers to play hard to get: its charms are subtle. But if you look closely, you’ll find a long, fascinating history of arts and culture, spiritual scholarship and religious harmony. In Hyderabad’s Old City, Islamic monuments, Persian-inspired architecture and the call of the muezzin speak of the city’s unique history, created most notoriously by two wealthy family dynasties that loved Allah, diamonds and, above all, beauty.
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