In the centre of the old section of Hyderabad in south central India, two main city streets intersect beneath a large rectangular structure with four open arches to accommodate street traffic. Named after the four minarets on top of the building, Char Minar was designed to be the centrepiece from which the entire city would extend. It was conceived by Muhammad Quli, the fifth of the Qutb Shahis, in the 1590s and is considered the supreme architectural achievement of the Qutb Shahi period.