The monuments’ complex in Hauz Khas village is a remarkable set of buildings in Delhi. It is a 14^th century madrasa, an institution for Islamic learning, which is built around a 13^th century tank. The heritage walk in Hauz Khas covers this madrasa complex as well as some monuments in the adjacent Deer Park. A winding lane from Hauz Khas village leads us to the gateway to the complex. There is a lot digging being done in the complex so most of the area is piled up with building materials and big stones. The madrasa building is built along one side of the tank and originally the water would have lapped its walls. Now the tank is much smaller and there is a landscaped park with jogging track between the tank and the madrasa. It is an excellent view of the surroundings and in the evening, with the birds chirping and colours of the sunset, it makes a beautiful setting. Continue Reading This Post

The tank, hauz khas was a reservoir built during the reign of alaudin khilji,under his royal command,was probably intended to supply the needs of the gardens and fields around siri…capital city built by alaudin khilji….here we started our walk..the tank was restored by feroz shah tuglaq….infact when timur ,mongol ruler invaded, defeated mohammed shah tuglaq in1398…had camped here and misunderstood it to have been built by feroz shah tuglaq…feroz shah tuglaq’s tomb and the madarsa form an l-shaped building..as we entered the tomb we found it to be more elaborately carved than the other buildings…one unusal feature is the stone railings at the main entrance of the tomb.next to it is.the pillared hall, is connected .it.has the architectural style seen in hindu -jain temples…flat roof supported by pillars….there is also a hall with a dome…could be a cenotaph……after this we moved to south-west wing of the l-shaped stucture…here as we go down the steps we found ourselves among a row of small cell like rooms that would have been student’s accomodation..next building was an interesting one…it is Continue Reading This Post

Visitors to the Hauz Khas heritage walk are often surprised. They hardly expect such a grand monument complex lying just behind the designer shops & studios in Hauz Khas village. These are remains of a 13^th century tank and madrasa complex built in 14^th century. Parts of it were inaccessible because of some fresh digging. The tank was built by Alauddin Khalji for his capital city of Siri and madrasa was built by Firuz Shah Tughluq. Standing among the halls and rooms of the madrasa one gets a view of the tank and also the munda gumbad, a ruined pavilion just beyond. The complex also has the tomb of Firuz Shah himself, a large and impressive building. The ceiling hof the tomb has beautiful incised & painted plaster decoration. The first storey of the madrasa have very small rooms. There is a larger gateway (now closed) which could have been the original entrance to the complex. Close by is a residential unit which now houses the ASI office. There are number of pavilions which are tombs, probably for people associated with the madrasa. Continue Reading This Post

Here are some of the photographs of a heritage walk in hauz khas and deer park. The walk covered the madrasa complex around the 14th century hauz (tank), Firuz Shah Tughlaq’s tomb, Lodi period tomb & mosque in Deer Park. Towards the end of the heritage walk we walked down to the tank, which offers a stunning view of the madrasa.

(posted by Rajesh Ranjan & Kanika Singh, team members, Delhi Heritage Walks)

Hauz Khas Heritage Walk

More photographs of Hauz Khas Walk sent by Ameet K. Mangat, Heritage Enthusiast