The special walk for the month covered Tughuqabad fort and tomb of Ghiyasuddin Tughluq. The entrance to the fort is right on Mehrauli Badarpur Road. The fort and tomb were connected by a causeway which was breached to make the road. We began our heritage walk by first exploring the fortifications on the south side. The Continue Reading This Post
Today’s weather was perfect…bright, breezy and pleasantly cool. 18 heritage enthusiasts joined me along with Kanika Singh and Rajesh Ranjan for the heritage walk in Mehrauli Archaeological Park. Situated on the Aravallis, this is perhaps earliest inhabited area of Delhi. This heritage trail is vast and very interesting: it covers monuments and structures from 13th century to 19th century. We started our walk from an arched gate that leads to Balban’s tomb. It is here that ASI carried out some excavation work in summer of 2009 and found some rooms, graves which seems to be part of the larger residential complex..today again we saw labour working on the site…let us see what more may come out of it. Adjacent to Balban’s tomb is Khan Shaheed’s grave, son of Balban who died fighting the Mongols in 1285A.D. This chamber has some some remains of floral designs on plaster and little bit of blue tile on one of the walls. We can visualise how magnificent it would have been at the time of its construction. Continue Reading This Post
A perfect Saturday evening in Lodi garden, we began the walk from gate no. 1 of the park walking towards Mohammad Shah Sayyid’s tomb. The tomb is now fully restored, all thanks to the preparations for the Commonwealth games this winter. This is the only Sayyid building in Lodi garden. Historians often club Sayyid and Lodi reigns together; as a result people often are not aware of Sayyids ruling in north India. The next stop was the Bada Gumbad with its beautiful Lodi period mosque. The plaster decoration is exquisite and covers almost every surface of the mosque. Right opposite is the Shish Gumbad, a square, Lodi period tomb. We then walked towards Sikander Lodi’s tomb. True to his name, Sikander Lodi is known for his military exploits and his tomb resembles a mini-fortress. Walking around the athpula, the 16th century bridge, we reached some late-Mughal monuments, a mosque and a garden pavilion. We finished the walk near a 14th century turret. It was probably part of an enclosure wall which no longer exists. This is probably the earliest surviving ruin in the Lodi garden.
(posted by Rajesh Ranjan & Kanika Singh, team members, Delhi Heritage Walks)
We covered the main street of Chandni Chowk, from Digambar Jain Lal Mandir opposite Red Fort right up till the Fatehpuri area. The Jain temple and Gauri Shankar temple are the two most important temples in old Delhi. Their shikhars are most prominently visible from a distance. The first one is contemporary to Shah Jahan’s time (mid 17th century) and the second was built in 18th century. Next stop was SBI building which has recently undergone restoration. This entire area would originally have been Begam Samroo’s estate. It is now called Bhagirath Place & is a very large market for electronic goods. Close by is the Central Baptist Church built just after 1857 uprising. On the opposite side are the famous jalebiwala and Dariba Kalan, the street known for its silver jewellery. Next was Sisganj gurudwara, the fountain chowk and Sunheri masjid. The fountain & sisganj gurudwara mark the place of martyrdom of Guru Teg Bahadur & 3 of his followers. 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 13th century tank and madrasa complex built in 14th 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
