Dholka

Ahmedabad

By kevinstandagehotography on April 3, 2015 • ( 7 Comments )

A short distance from Ahmedabad lies Dholka, and for me possibly one of the highlights of my tour around eastern Gujarat.

Dholka is a treasure trove of medieval Muslim architecture and yet nobody seems to visit it even though it can be easily reached by car in less than an hour.

There are a number of monuments here, but the only one I visited was the grandest and largest, the Khan Masjid.

Built on an immense scale in 1453, the mosque overlooks a large man-made lake to the west of the old town.

It was probably intended as an idgah – a congregational building outside the city used for special occasions.

One flight of stairs is still accessible that takes you up to the roof – but be aware of bats which may be hiding in the dark recesses of the staircase !

Whilst I was there I was lucky to get into the interior of the mosque…a gate that appeared to be usually padlocked was open at the time.

The Khan Masjid in Dholka won’t have any opening times as such, in fact access seemed to be via a fallen down fence that I guess was intended to prevent visitors altogether. The grounds are popular with local children playing cricket, I got the sense that it’s been like this for quite some time.

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Categories: Ahmedabad, Dholka, Gujarat, India

Tagged as: Islamic Sites