Warangal
— — four black gateways still standing in a field.
Not only on a wall.
“The old Kakatiya capital, about 150 kilometres northeast of Hyderabad on the Deccan plateau. What remains of the great 13th-century fort is mostly four basalt gateways at the cardinal points of the inner enclosure, set in open ground where the rest of the city used to be. South of the fort, the Thousand Pillar Temple still works as a Shiva sanctuary. Outside the city, the Ramappa Temple holds a roof made of bricks light enough to float.
Warangal, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Warangal lies on the Deccan plateau in the state of Telangana, about 150 kilometres northeast of Hyderabad, at an elevation near 300 metres. The city was the capital of the Kakatiya dynasty, which ruled much of the eastern Deccan from the 12th to the 14th century under rulers including Ganapati Deva, Rudrama Devi, and Prataparudra. The Delhi Sultanate took the city in 1323, and the great fort was largely dismantled afterward. Warangal, the nearby Ramappa Temple, and a network of Kakatiya tanks remain the principal heritage of that period in the region.
The signature image of Warangal is the four kirti-toranas, freestanding stone gateways carved from blocks of dolerite that survived the dismantling of the inner fort. They stood as the cardinal entrances to a destroyed Shiva temple commissioned by Ganapati Deva in the early 13th century, and now mark the centre of the open fort site. The Thousand Pillar Temple at Hanamkonda, built in 1163 under Rudra Deva, uses a star-shaped plan and densely carved black basalt pillars typical of late Kakatiya work.
Warangal is reached by train from Secunderabad in roughly two and a half hours, or by road in about three. The fort site, the Thousand Pillar Temple, and the Bhadrakali Temple all lie within the twin cities of Warangal and Hanamkonda. The Ramappa Temple, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, sits about 70 kilometres northeast at Palampet, and is best paired with the nearby Pakhal Lake. Late October through February is the comfortable season; summers are hot and dry, with daytime highs above 40 °C.