The mausoleum of Muhammad Adil Shah II of the Adil Shahi dynasty, the Gol Gumbaz or Gol Gumbad, is located in Bijapur (now Vijayapura), in India. It is considered a remarkable example of the architectural style of the Bijapur Sultanate. Its name — literally gol, meaning ‘round’, and gumbaz, meaning ‘dome’ in Dakhni — refers to its large hemispheric dome. With an internal diameter of 37.9 metres and an external diameter of 44 metres, it is the largest dome in India as well as one of the largest ever constructed. 

Completed in 1659, at the height of Adil Shahi prosperity, the single-chamber mausoleum was designed to impress visitors with its size and opulence. It sits within a walled complex that contains other buildings, including a mosque, a rest house and the Naqqar Khana.

The structure of the Gol Gumbaz is cubical, measuring nearly 50 metres on each side and surmounted by the dome. The structure’s four corners have a seven-storeyed octagonal minaret each, capped by smaller domes with petalled bases. Every storey has seven arched windows. Each minaret has an internal staircase, accessible from within the structure, which leads to the top and out onto the parapeted arcades that surround the dome. 

The walls of the Gol Gumbaz are constructed of basalt, and the decorations on their surface are made using plaster. The northern wall of the structure has a semi-octagonal chamber. The exteriors of the eastern, western and southern walls have three recessed arches each, their spandrels decorated with medallions on brackets rendered in plaster. The central arch is larger amongst the three, and made of a stone screen punctuated with doors and windows. Over the arches, horizontal eaves over 3 metres long, supported by sculptured brackets, extend outward. A row of small arches topped by crenellated parapets rests above the eaves. The base of the dome, lined by decorative leaves or petals, rises from this point, with the hemispherical dome dominating the upper half of the structure.