The White Mughals tour Hyderabad begins with hotel pickup at 9 am in a private air conditioned vehicle.

The first stop is Bank Street, the financial heart of 18th century Hyderabad, where the tour begins with your guide setting the scene — the Hyderabad that Kirkpatrick arrived in, the extraordinary wealth of the Nizams, and the complex political game the East India Company was playing across the Deccan.

The British Residency is the centrepiece of the White Mughals tour Hyderabad. This imposing mansion was built after the Nizams and the British signed a treaty in 1798, and it served as both the official residence and administrative headquarters of the British Resident. The Durbar Hall is the highlight, its Burma teak flooring, Belgian mirrors and French chandeliers a statement of British imperial confidence that sits oddly in a city whose culture Kirkpatrick was simultaneously embracing. The surrounding Residency Bazaar grew into the financial centre of Hyderabad through the 19th century. After the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny the residency was fortified with high walls and bastions. Today it is Osmania Women’s College.

The replica mansion is one of the most romantic details of the entire story. Khair un Nissa, as a Muslim noblewoman in purdah, was forbidden from visiting her husband’s official residence. Kirkpatrick’s solution was to build her an exact smaller replica of the British Residency within the compound so she could experience the building he was so proud of without breaking the rules of her faith.

Rang Mahal, the Palace of Colours, was the private palace Kirkpatrick built for his Begum within the residency compound. It was here that Khair un Nissa gave birth to their daughter Sahib Begum.

The tour continues through the three historic gates — Empress, Robert and Lansdowne — that once controlled access to the residency quarter, past a British cemetery where Company officials who never made it home lie buried, a stepwell that supplied the residency with water, and ends at the memorial to a resident’s dog, a small and oddly moving footnote to the whole extraordinary story.

Hotel drop by 1:30 pm.

This private White Mughals tour Hyderabad is fully inclusive. We take care of hotel pickup and drop in a private air conditioned vehicle, your English speaking cultural guide throughout the tour, and all entry fees.