City of Lakes - Bhopal

Bhopal is said to have been founded by the Parmara King Bhoj (1000–1055), who had his capital at Dhar. The city was originally known as Bhojpal named after Bhoj and the dam ('pal') that he is said to have constructed to form the lakes surrounding Bhopal.

Bhopal is the capital city of Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal is a hilly area, located on the Malwa plateau, and the land rises towards the Vindhya Range to the south. The summers are hot and the winters cold. It rains moderately during the rainy season.

The major hills in Bhopal comprise of Idgah hills and Shyamala hills in the northern region and Arera hills in the central region.

View of Lake from Bhopal

It has two very beautiful lakes, collectively known as the Bhoj Wetland.
These lakes are the Upper Lake (built by King Bhoj) and the Lower Lake. The catchment area of the Upper Lake is 361 km2 while that of the Lower Lake is 9.6 km2. The Upper Lake drains into the Kolans River.

Lower Lake: About 9.6 km2

Himanshu

Inside view of Masaajid
Himanshu

Taj-ul-Masaajid : Small lake man-made lake called Moti Lake inside the Masaajid campus
Himanshu

Taj-ul-Masaajid:
The name is Masaajid and not masjid because 'masaajid' is plural of mosques and it literally means Crown Among Mosques. It is one of the largest mosques in Asia, built by Shahjehan Begum around a courtyard with a large tank in the centre and with an imposing double storeyed gate-way with 4 recessed archways and 9 imposing cusped multifoiled openings in the main prayer hall. The Quibla wall in the prayer hall is carved with 11 recessed arches, while the mimber is made of black basalt. The structure is enlivened by the limpid expanse of water in the tank outside the northern wall. The monumentality of this structure was much greater originally when it faced the towering bastions of the Fatehgarh Fort. A three-day Ijtima congregation was held here annually draws people from all over the world but has recently been shifted outside the City. Bhopal has over 400 mosques. Interestingly, Tajul Masaajid, perhaps the biggest mosque in India, faces the smallest mosque in the country that lies just on the other side of the road in the same area. The

Himanshu

Bharat Bhavan : It is the main cultural center of the city and of the most important cultural centers of India. It was designed by the famous architect Charles Correa . It has an art gallery that exhibits works of famous painters and sculptors. It has an open-air amphitheatre facing the Upper Lake and two other theatres and a tribal museum. The night-view from the amphitheatre set on the backdrop of the old city and the lake is magnificent.

National Juducial Academy Bhopal
Himanshu

Arial View of National Judicial Academy
Himanshu

Sunset

The Upper Lake was created by King Bhoj (1005-1055), ruler of Malwa. He established Bhopal (also named after him) to secure the eastern frontier of his kingdom. The lake was created by constructing an earthen dam across the Kolans River. The Kolans was formerly a tributary of the Halali River; with the creation of the Upper Lake and a diversion channel, the upper reach of the Kolans River and the Upper Lake now drain into the Kaliasote River. A weir at Bhadbhada, at the southeast corner of the Upper Lake, was constructed in 1965 and now controls the outflow to the Kaliasote.