Mehrauli, lying on the south-west of Delhi is one of the most important group of villages which developed around the shrine of the Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, popularly known as Qutb Sahib. He was born in Central Asia but came to India during the reign of Iltutmish as a disciple of Khwaja...Read more
Shahjahanabad, a historic city of Delhi and the capital during the peak of Mughal power in India, has undergone many changes since it was first established by the Emperor Shahjahan in the 1650s. The northern areas of the city, between Chandni Chowk and Kashmiri Gate have perhaps seen the bulk of...Read more
To the south of the western gateway is the tomb of Qutb Sahib. It is a simple structure enclosed by wooden railings. The marble balustrade surrounding the tomb was added in 1882. The rear wall was added by Fariduddin Ganj-e-Shakar as a place of prayer. The western wall is decorated with coloured fl...Read more
Probably the oldest continuously inhabited area in Delhi, the area around the Qutb Complex, commonly known as Mehrauli is the site of Delhi’s oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs in ad 1060. The only remnants of this period are the fort walls and the Iron Pillar, which may...Read more
Delhi is not one city, but many. In the 3,000 years of its existence, the name ‘Delhi’ (or Dhillika, Dilli, Dehli,) has been applied to these many cities, all more or less adjoining each other in their physical boundary, some overlapping others. Invaders and newcomers to the throne, anxious to...Read more
The conservation of a community’s cultural or natural resources across much of rural India and indeed Asia is closely linked with the function that heritage continues to perform for the community. Traditional management systems have been developed to preserve these resources over the centuries...Read more
Chirag Dilli is named for the much-revered Sufi mystic, Nasiruddin Mahmud, Roshan Chiragh-e-Dehli (‘The Illuminated Lamp of Delhi’), who came to Delhi in the early fourteenth century and was a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya, and later became his successor. Along with Khirki village, south-west of...Read more
Lodi Garden, once called Bagh-i-Jud, was the royal burial ground for the Sayyid and Lodi rulers of Delhi. Located on Lodi Road between Safdurjung’s Tomb and Khan Market in south Delhi, the garden covers an area of approximately 90 acres, dotted with beautiful monuments and tombs. With its...Read more
The name Daryaganj (Darya – river; ganj – wholesale market) suggests that this was originally a wholesale mart for grains and other bulk goods that came to Delhi on the river Yamuna, which flowed just below the city walls on the east. On the west, Daryaganj was bounded by a prominent market street...Read more
In the mid 14th century, when Firoz Shah Tughlaq ascended the throne of Delhi, he (like many of his predecessors and successors) decided to leave his mark by building his own city, Firozabad, with its accompanying citadel. Little remains of Firozabad the city. This is largely because two subsequent...Read more