Historical Suite, City View

There are 3 Historical Suites, and they are the ones at the front. Wooden floors, handcrafted fabrics, antique furniture the palace already owned, and — the reason to take one — a private sit-out on the city side. From 600 metres up, that is not a view of a street; it is the whole of Hyderabad laid out to the horizon, with the Charminar somewhere in the middle of it and Golconda's ridge off to the west.

These run 55 to 153 square metres, a range that tells you they are not copies of one another. What they have in common is the aspect and the position, at the front of a building that was designed to be looked at rather than out of. Take one for the evening: the 40 minutes after sunset, on that sit-out, is the best thing this hotel gives away with a room.