Gulzar Houz is a historical fountain located in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is located near the

Charminar The Charminar () is a monument located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Constructed in 1591, the landmark is a symbol of Hyderabad and officially incorporated in the emblem of Telangana. The Charminar's long history includes the existence of a m ...

monument. The fountain is in the middle of the road between Charminar and Madina building. The area between the four arches of Charkaman was a vast square called ''Jilu Khana'' or the ''Guard's Square''. In the centre of the square was the ''Char-Su-Ka-Hauz'' (the

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

of four cardinal points). This was later known as "Suka-Hauz" and now Gulzar Houz. This was built 350 feet

equidistant A point is said to be equidistant from a set of objects if the distances between that point and each object in the set are equal. In two-dimensional Euclidean geometry, the locus of points equidistant from two given (different) points is t ...

from the four kamaans surrounding it. Initially it was 12 sided then it turned octagonal and today it looks almost circular. It was an octagonal shaped water reservoir made for quenching the thirst of the

Nizam Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I ...

's soldiers. At that time, there were four

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

flowing from this fountain, dividing each of the Radial roads into two halves. It was constructed by Mir Momin Astarabadi , the first prime minister under Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah (5th

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

of Qutb shahi dynasty) around 400 years ago. It was refurbished and reopened in the year 2023.

Incidents

On 18 May 2025, a devastating fire occurred in a century-old building near Gulzar Houz in Hyderabad. The blaze resulted in the deaths of 17 members of a single family, including eight children. The fire reportedly started around 4:45 AM IST in the ground-floor pearl shop, likely due to a short circuit in the display cabinet's wiring. This led to an explosion in the air-conditioner's compressor, causing the fire to spread rapidly through the building, which featured wooden interiors and lacked proper ventilation. Family members attempted to extinguish the fire themselves for approximately 45 minutes before contacting emergency services at around 6:00 AM. The delay in reporting the fire contributed to the severity of the incident.

References

{{Neighbourhoods of Hyderabad Qutb Shahi architecture Heritage structures in Hyderabad, India Neighbourhoods in Hyderabad, India Fountains in Hyderabad