Gumbaz, Srirangapatna

The Gumbaz at Ganjam, Srirangapatna, is the mausoleum Tipu Sultan built in 1782–84 for his father, Hyder Ali, and his mother, Fakhr-un-Nisa. Tipu was laid here too after he was killed in 1799 during the Siege of Srirangapatna, so three graves lie inside: Hyder Ali in the centre, his wife to the east and Tipu to the west. Many relatives are buried on the veranda and in the grounds.

The tomb rises on a raised platform in the middle of a large rectangular garden, once planted with cypress and, it is said, with trees Tipu gathered from Kabul, Persia, Ottoman Turkey and French Mauritius. Following the Bijapur style, a dome sits on a cube with ornamental railings and turrets, carried on 36 black granite pillars; doors and windows have pierced lattice in the same stone, and tiger stripes, Tipu's colours, cover the inner walls. The original carved doors are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, replaced by ebony doors inlaid with ivory given by Lord Dalhousie.