Tourism in Andhra Pradesh
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Andhra Pradesh has a variety of attractions including beaches, hills, wildlife, forests and temples. The state has a rich cultural heritage and is known for its rich history, architecture and culture. Andhra Pradesh is the top tourist destination in India.[1] The weather is mostly tropical. June to September are the monsoon months and travel is not advised during this time. November to January are the best time to visit.
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[edit] Cities of Andhra Pradesh
[edit] Hyderabad
Hyderabad is known for its rich history, culture and architecture representing its unique characteristic of a meeting point for North and South India. Hyderabad is also one of the most developed cities in the country and it is also home to the second largest film industry in India, Cinema of Andhra Pradesh. It is an emerging information technology (or IT) and biotechnology hub of India. Telugu, Urdu and Hindi are the principal languages spoken in Hyderabad. Hyderabadi cuisine is a blend of heavy Mughal influences, traditional Andhra and Telangana cuisine. A number of restaurants have come up that serve a variety of cuisines. The more popular Hyderabadi restaurants in the Twin Cities are the Madina, Bawarchi, Cafe Bahar and the Golden Persis at Paradise Corner in Secunderabad.
[edit] Tirupati
The town owes its existence to the sacred temple situated on the Tirumala Hills. Tirumala is the abode of Lord Venkateshwara, (one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu), located atop Seshachala hills often called as "Yaelu Malai" or "Yaedu Kondalu" (seven hills). The temple of Lord Venkateshwara is the richest Hindu temple and the most visited religious center (of any faith) in the world.
[edit] Sri Kalahasti
Srikalahasti is a town in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located on the banks of river Swarnamukhi, a tributary to river Pennar. It is one of the ancient Hindu pilgrimages and the site of a famous Shiva temple with magnificent gopuras, and adjacent to Tirupati, another famous temple town. It is also the house of popular textile painting art called kalamkari.
[edit] Basar
This is an ancient temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswathi. The temple at Basar is also the abode of Goddess Lakshmi and Kali. The current structure dates back to the Chalukya period.
This temple has no exquisite carvings like other temples. Walking ahead a few steps, one enters the sanctum sanctorum - a feeling better experienced than described. A feeling of peace, brightness and unlimited joy engulfs one. The presiding deity, 'Gnana Saraswathi Devi', is in a seated position with a 'Veena' in hand and bedecked with turmeric. Adjacent is the shrine of Goddess Maha Lakshmi and a little distance away, on the eastern side is the Maha Kali temple. Basar is a village with wonderful gardens surrounded by the temple premises amidst the dry and barren patches of the north Telangana region, 30-km from Nizamabad. Basar is situated on the banks of River Godavari. It is located at a distance of about 220-km by road and 190-km by rail from Hyderabad.
[edit] Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam (also known as Vizag and Waltair) is the second largest city in Andhra Pradesh and is located on the eastern shore of India in the state of Andhra Pradesh, nestled among the hills of the Eastern Ghats and facing the Bay of Bengal to the east. Tourists are attracted by its unspoilt beaches, nearby scenic Araku Valley and Borra caves, the 11th-century Simhachalam temple and ancient Buddhist sites like Totlakonda & Bavikonda spread across the area. The city boasts a submarine museum, the first of its kind in South Asia, at Rama Krishna Beach. Vizag is well connected with daily flights from Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Tirupati, and Bhopal. With the entry of several new airlines, Air Sahara, Air Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, and Paramount Airways. There are bus services to hyderabad, vijaywada and Orissa. The Beach road from East point colony to Coastal battery is studded with parks, statues, etc, is a favorite evening gathering point. Along the road can be found India's only submarine museum, INS Kursura, as well as the Visakha museum and Matsyadarsini (an aquarium). VUDA park, at the beginning of the Beach Road, has a musical fountain, and entertainment for children. It has a roller skating ground, which has served as the venue for several national and international skating competitions.
Rushikonda beach, 6 km away from Vizag city, has become a favorite evening spot. Bhimili-Vizag beach Road, 30 km in length offers one of the best views of the sea, sand, hills and greenery. Many parks are constructed adjacent to this road. Tenneti park beach park is a park constructed on the cliff of Kailashagiri. There are several points from which the beautiful rocky beach down beneath can be seen. Many Telugu, Tamil and Hindi movies were filmed here.
Visakhapatnam is predominantly a Telugu speaking city. The Telugu spoken by the middle classes is a standard dialect, while a significant population who have settled down in the city from the adjoining villages and neighbouring districts of East Godavari, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam speak Uttarandhra (North Coastal) Mandalikam dialects. Historians believe that centuries ago, when Uttarandhra was part of the KalingaEmpire, Buddhist missionaries and merchants might have taken Telugu (Derived from Brahmi script) script to Southeast Asia from the shores of Uttarandhra where it parented into the scripts of Mon, Burmese, Thai, Khmer, Siam, Javanese and Balinese languages and even Sinhala of Sri Lanka. Their similarities to Telugu script can be discerned even today. Visakhapatnam is home to a small Oriya, Maharashtrians, Bengali and Malayalee communities; their migration is of recent origin. Due to the Naval presence and high concentration of public sector industries, Visakhapatnam has a significant Hindi speaking population.
Visakhapatnam is also known as the City Of Destiny.It is also one of the fast developing cities in the India and among the top 20 cities in the world. Vizag is also known for it scenic beauty and is also considered as the tourism capital of our state. Visakhapatnam serves as the gateway for waterways for the state of Andhra Pradesh. Visakhapatnam has one of the country's largest ports and its oldest shipyard. It has the only natural harbour on the eastern coast of India. The Visakhapatnam port is one of the busiest ports in India. The shipbuilding yard situated at Visakhapatnam is the largest in India.
Vizag is by road,rail and air to all the major cities in the country.
SPORTS Cricket is the most popular game followed by tennis and football. The city is home to a number of local cricket teams participating in various district and zonal events. Vishakapatnam has two international cricket stadiums namely Indira Priyadarshini Stadium (5 ODI Matches): Also known as the Municipal Corporation Stadium, ACA-VDCA Stadium:(3 ODI Matches): The ACA-VDCA Stadium has recently hosted 2 ODIs with India winning against Pakistan in the first and against Sri Lanka in the second. Now this stadium is upgraded to host day/night matches. It has the most advanced flood lights in India after Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi.This Stadium hosted an odi between India and Australia WHICH is also won by india batting second.
[edit] Guntur
Guntur is the fourth biggest city in Andhra Pradesh. Though the city is not a hub of tourism it's surrounding places adds the importance of tourism in Guntur. Guntur is famous for shopping, textile industries, tobacco industries and major export of chilies, turmeric. Intresting places in and around the Guntur City are Manasasarovaram, Uppalapadu bird santury, Kakani shiva temple, Hailand/Chinakakani(Theme Park). On the suburban and rural side of the city there are Amaravati, Namburu, Kondavidu, Bellamkonda, Nagarjunasagar, Nagarjunakonda, Battiprolu, Chebrolu, Ethipothala, Mangalagiri, Karampudi are famous. Amaravathi: Amaravathi is a world famous tourism site famous for its buddist remains,chaityas,mahastupas,shiva temple. Namburu:namburu is the suburban of guntur city famous for kaligardens,hreenkar theerth(jain temple) Kondavidu: kondavidu is a important tourism site in andhrapradesh its the place from where reddy dynasty kings ruled over Andhra Pradesh, some parts of tamilnadu too. Intresting places here are gopinath temple (commonly called kathula bavi in telugu), Fort. Bellam konda : Fort built by reddy dynasty kings, sight seeing, hill-climbing. Nagarjunakonda and Nagarjunasagar: Budhist remains, Dam, Boat rides. Ethipothala is famous for water falls, while Mangalagiri, Karampudi & Chebrolu were famous for temples.
[edit] Vijaywada
Vijayawada is the third largest city in Andhra Pradesh and is located on the banks of the Krishna River bounded by the Indrakeeladri Hills on the west and the budameru stream on the north. Besides being an important religious centre for Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, Vijayawada is also a centre of Andhra culture.
Kanakadurga Temple, the second largest temple in Andhra Pradesh is located here. Also worth seeing are Prakasam Barrage, Kondapalli Fort, Bhavani Island, Victoria Museum, Undavalli Caves,Namburu, Mangalagiri and Amaravati. Also worth visiting is "Haailand", about 15 km from Vijayawada, which is a theme park. Ropeway to Indrakeeladri and Shilparamam are the main projects that are going to come up.
With a population of over a million and a floating population of over 80 lakhs in a month, lot of activity is expected to happen in the near future. Mall and Multiplex Culture is also picking up fast in Vijayawada with big names like Inox, PVR and Adlabs setting up their screens. Star hotels like Taj are also eying the city as a poetential market.
State run city buses, motor driven auto rickshaws and manual driven cycle rickshaws are the major means of transport in Vijayawada. The domestic airport located at Gannavaram, is about 20 km from the city and connects Vijayawada to Hyderabad and Bangalore by air.
[edit] Warangal
Warangal is the fifth-largest city in Andhra Pradesh and is known for important educational institutions like Kakatiya Medical College and National Institute of Technology (NIT),NIT grew into an important national level institute for engineering studies. Warangal NIT is one of the best Institutes among all the NIT's in India. From 1959 onwards, this institute has successfully produced innumerable global citizens and scientists. Ex President of India, Sri Abdul Kalam visits this institute almost every year.
Warangal was the capital of a Hindu Shaivaite kingdom[citation needed] ruled by the Kakatiya dynasty from the 12th to the 14th centuries. The old name of this newly formed city is Orugallu. Oru means one and Kallu means stone. The Ancient name was Andhra Nagaram please refer Andhra Maha Vishnu temple.
Kakatiya sculpture at WarangalLiterary evidence shows that long before Satavahanas, a legendary king named Āndhra Viṣhṇu ruled in and around the Diviseema region of Andhra state. After his reign, people came to believe that he had an amsa of the divine savior Lord Maha Vishnu himself. Perhaps in his honor, people dedicated a new temple now located at Srikākuḷam, Krishna District. The lord of the temple is known as Āndhra Viṣhṇu or Srikākuḷāndhra Viṣhṇu. The Kakatiyas left many monuments, including an impressive fortress, four massive stone gateways, the Swayambhu temple dedicated to Shiva, and the Ramappa temple situated near Ramappa Lake. The cultural and administrative distinction of the Kakatiyas was mentioned by the famous traveller Marco Polo. Famous or well-known rulers included Ganapathi Deva, Prathapa Rudra, and Rani (queen) Rudrama Devi. After the defeat of Pratapa Rudra, the Musunuri Nayaks united seventy two Nayak chieftains and captured Warangal from Delhi sultanate and ruled for fifty years. Jealousy and mutual rivalry between Nayaks ultimately led to the downfall of Hindus in 1370 A.D. and success of Bahmanis. Bahmani Sultanate later broke up into several smaller sultanates, of which the Golconda sultanate ruled Warangal. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1687, and it remained part of the Mughal empire until the southern provinces of the empire split away to become the state of Hyderabad in 1724 which included the Telangana region and some parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Hyderabad was annexed to India in 1948, and became an Indian state. In 1956 Hyderabad was partitioned as part of the States Reorganization Act, and Telangana, the Telugu-speaking region of Hyderabad state which includes Warangal, became part of united Andhra Pradesh state.
Major Hindu festivals such as Bathukamma festival, Dasara, Deepavali, Sankranti are celebrated here. Bonalu and Bathukamma festival is very famous here and celebrated by the women and young girls worshipping the goddess for nine days with various flowers.
In addition, the district hosts the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara or congregation bi-annually, and approximately 6 million people gather around the small village of Medaram and its adjacent stream/rivulet, Jampanna Vagu, 90 km from Warangal city for over three days. This fair is said to be the largest repeating aggregation of tribal communities in the whole world and commemorates the valiant fight put up by a mother and daughter (Samakka and Sarakka) with the reigning Kakatiya king over an unjust law. This is also the second biggest congregation in Asian continent after Kumbha Mela in India.[5]
- Air: There is an airstrip at Mamnoor on the south-eastern outskirts. The nearest international air port is located at Hyderabad, 150 km away.
- Rail: Warangal is well connected to all the major cities in India by rail. Kazipet is about 13 km from Warangal and is a major railway junction, which also includes a diesel-electric locomotive facility. Kazipet is also known as the Gateway to North India.
- Road: Long-distance deluxe buses run from Warangal to Bangalore, Madras, Hyderabad, Tirupathi, Anantapur, and Hubli; and standard express buses to Guntur via Vijaywada, Cherial, Jangaon, Kodad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Suryapet, Palampet, Jagtial, Khammam, Bhadrachalam, and Basara.
[edit] Nellore
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[edit] See also
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[edit] References
- ^ "Andhra Pradesh top tourist destination: Tourism Ministry - Economic Times". Articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2011-07-18. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-07-18/news/29787547_1_domestic-tourist-tirupati-temple-andhra-pradesh. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
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