Delhi - Mehrauli and the Qutb Minar

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We wondered last night what the Hill Fort Kesroli was going to serve us for dinner, as the Delhi-wallahs had all left and Sara and I were the only guests, so clearly there would be no buffet dinner. Well they solved the problem by serving us all fifteen dishes that were on the buffet but in individual dishes. We tried most of them except the brown-red mutton rogan josh with whole red chillies in it. Not in the mood for that one with a possibly wobbly stomach.

Off to Delhi this morning. Delhi seems to start about sixty miles from its centre these days. Banks of new apartment blocks, many of them still in the early stages of construction, line the highway, together with massive office blocks bearing the familiar names of multinational businesses. We are on the NH8, the Delhi to Mumbai highway. “Six lanes very good road” says Pramod, but of course that does not stop people coming the wrong way on your side as per usual, or the camel carts hauling bricks holding everything up, or the bits where you are driving over the mud track as they are still building the highway. What have they actually done in the five years since we were last on this road?

Into the real urban sprawl, Gurgaon and its environs, home of a thousand call centres. Eventually we see a sign for Qutb Minar, but of course that then disappears along with the roadway. Pramod manfully steers us there, eventually.

The Qutub Minar and the Qutb complex is a UNESCO world heritage site and is the jewel in the crown of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park. The Park is an archaeological area spread over 200 acre in and around the Mehrauli township. It consists of the ruins of dozens of tombs, palace buildings and colonial follies scattered around a forest park. It is the only area in Delhi known for 1,000 years of continuous years of occupation, and includes the ruins of Lal Kot, the capital of the Tomar Rajputs built in 1060, and architectural relics of the Khalji, Tughluq and Lodhi dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and the Raj.

In 1193 Qutbuddin Aybak, a slave commander of Mohammad Ghori, defeated the last Hindu ruler of Delhi. He built the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and the Qutb Minar to announce the advent of the Delhi sultans, who ruled Delhi until their defeat at the hands of the Mughals in 1526. Later Delhi sultans added their tombs and monuments to the site, some of which remain today.

Now it is 12.30 so comfortably the hottest time of the day. The shirts sticking to our backs, we buy our tickets and tell the touts we do not need a guide. The Qutb Minar itself is extraordinary, towering almost 250ft high and dominating the whole site. It was completed by Sultan Iltutmish after the death of Qutbuddin Aybak.

The remains of the mosque complex comprise various walls and porticos, in part constructed from pillars and columns from Hindu temples which still carry their original Hindu motifs which were demolished by the conquerors and incorporated into the mosque. The beautiful Alai Darwaza is the only complete one of the four original gateways into the complex and was built in 1331 by Alauddin Khilji, one of the later sultans. There are tombs of two Delhi sultans. And everywhere the incredibly annoying people with their selfie sticks are annoying us by their very existence, taking their usual photos of blank walls instead of looking at the historical wonders around them.

In the middle of the complex stands one of the mysterious iron pillars from the Gupta period, around the fourth or fifth centuries AD. Made of iron, and inscribed, it has never rusted. How did the craftsmen make such an alloy all that time ago? No-one has ever solved that mystery.

We move on and try and find some of the other monuments in the Mehrauli Park. This presents a real problem to Pramod, who has never before been asked to find such places, many of which are found within the higgledy piggledy mess of Mehrauli town. We manage to find Adham Khan's tomb, built to house the remains of Akbar's friend he had executed in a fit of rage. But thereafter we give up – it is hot, we are tired, the map is not helping, the local people have no idea what we are looking for and the oasis of the Taj Mahal Hotel and its five star luxury is beckoning. Enough archaeology for one day.



But that is easier said than done, as Pramod does not know how to find the hotel. We drive up and down the broad avenues of New Delhi, built by the British in the days of the Raj and now housing embassies and government offices. Eventually he discovers that the hotel has changed its name recently, and we get there after a 45 minute tour of the avenues. By now we are hot and sweaty beyond belief, but the ever polite Taj staff treat us as if we were VIPS rather than the pair of eccentric older backpackers we now resemble.

More pictures below

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