To the north of the Qutb Minar is the stub of another minar, which if finished, would have dwarfed its neighbour. Alauddin, who built the Alai Darwaza, ordered its construction a year before his death in 1315, but his demise ended all work on it. Although built in rough stone, the external wall is already fluted showing the form that...
Delhi is somewhat better than its Asian counterparts in that it tries to provide natural habitats for its animals. The large garden area is also a quiet and green counterpart to the hectic world outside. The zoo houses more than 2000 species of birds and animals. Some of the more interesting exhibits include: Gir Lions, the last remaining Asiatic species...
This was the private meeting hall in the Red Fort where the emperor consulted with his ministers and welcomed his personal guests. In pride of place was the Peacock Throne, at least until 1739 when Nadir Shah marched in from Persia, sacked Delhi and looted the Red Fort. The throne was 2 metres by 1½ metres, had legs of solid...
Although he had palaces in Siri and Mehrauli, Feroz Shah Tughlaq decided in 1354 to build a new city. He chose the banks of the River Yamuna presumably for the water supply and this became Ferozabad, the fifth city of Delhi. It was probably abandoned by the Lodi Sultans in the late 1490s. Little remains as much was dismantled for...
Like the Mutiny Memorial, the octagonal Flagstaff Tower was built as a memorial to the 1857 ‘mutiny’. It’s on the highest point of The Ridge and marks the spot where British civilians fleeing from the rebels down in the Delhi cantonment below gathered in the extreme heat before they escaped to a safe destination. It is also the same place where...
These pavilions are in the Hayat Baksh Bagh (bagh means garden). Gardens were a paradise to the Mughals, the word coming from the Persian and meaning a walled garden. They were havens of quiet made beautiful with trees and flowers, and accompanied by the chirping of birds and the tinkling of running water. Dividing this garden into two is a...
Hauz Khas is a small village isolated from the continuous urban developments of South Delhi by a large parkland that also surrounds some important 14th-century monuments. It is this isolation that made it so attractive to trendy Delhiites who moved in and set up an upmarket commercial area with restaurants, art galleries, antique shops and designer-clothes shops. Its popularity peaked...
Humayun was an unlucky fellow in some respects. Only the second Mughal emperor of India, he was chucked off his throne by an Afghan warlord, Sher Shah, after only a ten-year reign. Then for fifteen years he fretted in Kabul, Afghanistan. After Sher Shah’s death there was a squabble over the succession to the imperial throne and Humayun seized his...
Originally named the All India War Memorial, India Gate is the ceremonial heart of India. The 45-metre-high India Gate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens as a war memorial to commemorate those who died fighting for the British in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1919. Since independence the names of those who have died in India’s...
These strange objects in pinky-red stone are the work of the Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler and founder of the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan. Today the city’s skyscrapers surround them, but back in 1724 when they were built this area was just open countryside. They were built for astrological purposes to accurately determine local time, (then there...
This private palace of the emperor in the Red Fort had three rooms. Tasbih Khana which was where the emperor prayed, counting on his rosary (tasbih) as he recited the 99 names of Allah. Khwabag was his bedroom which cost a huge amount to build on account of the carvings and decorative work. A marble screen carved with flowers and...
The Lakshmi Narayan Temple is an impressively decorated temple dedicated to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good fortune, and her consort Vishnu the preserver in his avatar as Narayan.The temple was built between 1933-39 by the industrialist BD Birla and is also known as the Birla Temple. It was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1939 and according to conditions...
The Bahai House of Worship is also known as the Lotus Temple because its shape is that of an opening lotus flower. The architect deliberately chose this form as it’s an ancient symbol common to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam. The temple is set in extensive and well cared for gardens, and is surrounded by nine pools of water. This...
The building of the Purana Qila, meaning Old Fort, was commenced by the emperor Humayun in 1530. It was then called Dinpanah or ‘Refuge of the Faithful’. Humayun only reigned for ten years before being usurped by an Afghan warlord Sher Shah who razed his predecessor’s buildings and erected his own. He renamed the city Shergarh, parts of which can...
The Qila Rai Pithora encompassing the smaller and earlier Lal Kot fort is recognised as the first true city of Delhi. It covered a considerable area north and east of the Qutb Minar with immense walls surrounded by a defensive ditch. Thirteen gates, none of which remain, gave access to the inside. Some remains of the walls, in a restored...
Qudsia Bagh is another one of those obscure quiet havens that dot the Delhi landscape, where you can escape the crowds, the heat, dust and the fumes, and wander in a well kept garden with a few interesting monuments. Qudsia Bagh is a garden designed in the traditional Persian charbagh style but most of it is now missing, its walls...
The Qutb Minar complex houses several restored ancient monuments within parkland. The soaring Qutb Minar dominates the skyline. These monuments were built between 1193 AD and 1368 AD on the ruins of Lal Kot. This was the citadel built by the Rajput ruler Anangpal in 739 AD and added to as the Qila Rai Pithoraby a later ruler, Prithviraj Chauhan. Prithviraj was the...
The Red Fort (Lal Qila) was built to accommodate the emperor, Shah Jahan, when he moved his capital here from Agra in 1648. It was a city within a city housing the imperial family in spacious and luxurious palaces while the people who served them lived in a shanty town near the eastern edge of the fort. The fort lies at...
Safdarjang’s Tomb was built in 1753-54 by the Nawab of Avadh for his father, Safdarjang, who was wazir (prime minister) of the Mughal empire during the reign of Ahmed Shah. This is the last major example of a Mughal garden tomb before the once-great empire collapsed. There are similarities to Humayun’s Tomb, but the proportions are wrong – it’s too...
This cupola, standing in one corner of the lawns, used to adorn the top of the Qutb Minar. It was added by Major Robert Smith of the Royal Engineers in 1828 to replace an earlier cupola that had been damaged by an earthquake. Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, ordered its removal 20 years later, as it didn’t fit in with the minar’s...