Bahauddin Bhar Maqbara (Vazir's Mausoleum)

Standing beside the older Mahabat Maqbara in the heart of old Junagadh, the Bahauddin Bhar Maqbara — commonly called the Vazir's Mausoleum — is one of Gujarat's most theatrical pieces of nineteenth-century architecture.

• It was raised in the late 1800s as the resting place of Bahauddin Hussein Bhar, the influential wazir (chief minister) who served the Nawabs of Junagadh, and it remains a purely secular heritage monument today rather than an active place of worship.
• Even travellers with only a passing interest in old buildings tend to stop in their tracks here: the structure is a riot of onion domes, horseshoe arches, French windows, silver-toned doorways and stone filigree that fuses Indo-Islamic, Gothic and European Renaissance idioms into something gloriously singular.
• The maqbara's signature — and the reason photographers keep circling it — is the set of four slender minarets at its corners, each wrapped in a fully external, corkscrewing spiral staircase.
• These winding stone stairs, coiling openly around the towers like ribbons, are an unusual flourish rarely seen anywhere else in India, and they give the whole ensemble a fantastical, almost storybook silhouette against the Junagadh sky.
• Intricate carving covers nearly every surface, from the domed roofline down to the arched verandahs, rewarding slow, unhurried looking.
• The monument sits within an easy stroll of Junagadh railway station in the Chittakhana Chowk area, making it a natural pairing with the neighbouring Mahabat Maqbara, the Uparkot Fort and the sacred Girnar hill nearby.
• Please note the towers and staircases are generally viewed from the exterior; access to climb the minarets is usually restricted, so treat this as a photography and architecture stop.
• Approach it as heritage, admire the craftsmanship, and be respectful of the surrounding neighbourhood.
• For food, Junagadh is firmly in Kathiyawad, so pure-vegetarian Gujarati thali is the local specialty.
• Long-running pure-veg thali houses such as Geeta Lodge near the railway station serve unlimited Kathiyawadi thalis of rotli, shaak, dal, kadhi, rice and farsan.
• Around the station and Kalwa Chowk you will also find pure-veg Gujarati thali restaurants, Punjabi and South Indian eateries, and simple bhojanalayas, alongside Junagadh's famous seasonal produce and sweet shops for a light, satisfying meal.