Hyderabad by Walk - Ameerpet, Nizamia Observatory

 Kiran told me that there was an observatory somewhere near Ameerpet and I checked it out on the net. There were some comments from people who had been there as part of some heritage walk and they were like we cannot go in and stuff like that. It looked like it was someplace near the Punjagutta-Ameerpet intersection so it was on a whim that I extended my walk and went looking for it on maps.

Tomb at Ameerpet - just off Srinagar colony road

Past Ameerpet and towards Punjagutta, past the graveyard (the tomb to the right on the Srinagar colony looks beautiful, wonder whose it is) and turn immediately near the temple before the government quarters on the left. 

Temple at Punjagutta colony 

Walk through the colony until you hit this big patch of well manicured land - the Centre for Economics and Social Sciences (CESS). The Nizamia Observatory is within this campus.

Tower 1 at Nizamia Observatory, CESS

Another view

The entrance looked formidable with security guards and stuff and I pushed my luck and asked the guard if i could see the observatory. It was an early hour, 630 am or so so he said i could and told me they were defunct and showed me where both towers were. I walked in the campus which was beautifully maintained and found the first tower to my right. It was a granite structure with wooden steps and was enclosed by some protective fencing so i could only see it from the outside. I went around the backside and found the other tower.  

Tower 2

Another view

The Nizamia Observatory (taken over by the Nizam Government in 1908) is an optical observatory constructed by Nawab Zafar Jung Bahadur who was from the house of Paigahs and Amir of the Khurshid Jah estate, The Observatory was established by the 6th Nizam Mir Mahboob Ali Khan and was named Nizamia Observatory in honour of the Nizam. Originally the observatory was located at Phisalbanda Palace (now Deccan Medical College). After the Nawab's death in 1907 it was given to the Nizam Government. In 1950 it was shifted to the current location of Japal-Rangapur. It was used to observe the 1980 solar eclipse and the Halley's Comet. Currently situated in the campus of CESS.

Tower 2

The Observatory had a Cooke Astrograph, a Grubb Refractor Telescope and it made 463, 542 observations and participated in Carte du Ciel. It did some serious work obviously. Directors include Arthur B Chatwood (1866-1915) after which it was moved to Begumpet, then Robert J Pocock (1914-18), TP Bhaskaran. Then the Observatory moved to Osmania University where it was headed by Akbar Ali, AK Das, KD Abhayankar and then moved to Japal-Rangapur and then KV Karandikar.   

Had chai at the canteen which was empty and clean. 

Special Education and Training Centre for intellectually Disabled

I walked out through the back entrance and found myself looking at an old building which looked dilapidated - part of Osmania University. The main board said that the Special Education and Training Centre for Intellectually Disabled. A smaller board was less subtle and said it was the Special Education Centre for Mentally Handicapped. It is part of  Institute of Genetics and Hospital for Genetic Diseases. 

The Special Education and Training Centre for Intellectually Diasbled

Looks like a haunted house

Birds!

A fabulous Roman style garden with a pond and a gazebo

Another view - it must have been beautiful in its heyday

Road leading down to Ameerpet - CESS to the left

Does not look like much work is going on here. Some people were walking in the huge, overgrown campus, few of them stretching near the old building. The building is at the top of a hillock and I walked down and turned right and there's a gate which has a board 'Osmania University' written on it. Out of the campus and walk and you end up somewhere near Sheesh Mahal theatre. 

One wonders what Osmania University is doing with such lovely facilities in the heart of the city that are going unused. And I wondered at how I lived 40 plus years in this area and never knew that such places existed!