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Published: April 13th 2012
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DELHI, NATIONAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, INDIA. Thursday 5 April, 2012.
Our guide, Shaitevda, was waiting for us in the hotel reception and the trusty Mr Barun was in the car. We drove through the amazingly clean and completely Holy Cow free streets of, mainly residential, South Delhi, into New Delhi and out to Old Delhi which was the first stop of our tour.
Mr Barun dropped us just outside the famous Red Fort. We did not visit this, Delhi's most famous monument, as it is exactly the same as the Red Fort in Agra which we had already seen. However, this was a great place for us hire a rickshaw for a tour of Old Delhi with its narrow streets. M and D had one rickshaw and Shaitevda had another. Though it is not, in fact, the oldest part of Delhi, the 17th century city of Shahjahanabad, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, is known as Old Delhi.
Completed in 1649 it was surrounded by 8 km of city walls with 14 gates. Most of the walls have now decayed to nothing and only 4 of the gates are still standing. In its heyday this part of modern
day Delhi had a wide main thoroughfare, Chandni Chowk, the Red Fort (Lal Qila) and a mosque, the Jama Masjid. We made our way through the narrow streets which were impassable by a car. Our rickshaw driver was pretty good - even managing to avoid the wonky bits of pavement so as not to throw us out. We passed stalls selling fruits, shops selling fabrics, electronics, poultry and meat - anything under the sun really. Old Delhi is divided into sectors specialising in different commodities and services. These are wholesale outlets and also ship much of their products and services abroad. We finished our ride outside the Jama Masjid mosque. After a quick discussion with Shaitevda we decided not to enter as M was not dressed appropriately and didn't want to wear the supplied skanky robe - seen enough temples anyway!
We returned to Mr Barun and the waiting car and drove to Raj Ghat which is the site of Mahatma Ghandi's cremation. The exact spot is marked by a huge marble slab situated in large, well kept, litter free, undulating gardens. It is a sacred pilgrimage for many Indians.
Mr Barun then drove us to India Gate,
a war memorial arch built in honour of 90,000 Indian soldiers who lost their lives in WW1. Underneath the arch burns the Amar Jawan Jyoti, the eternal flame in tribute to all martyred soldiers of India.
Next stop was the administrative buildings of the Government of India which lie at the end of a long boulivard which joins India Gate. The most important of these buildings is Rashtrapati Bhawan, the official residence of the President of India. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, this imposing structure has 340 rooms. Seven hundred million bricks were used in its construction. The dome is the most prominent feature of the building. It is flanked by other impressive office buildings called the North Block and the South Block.
We then drove to Humayuns Tomb which is a World Heritage Monument. This is Delhi's first Mughal mausoleum, constructed to house the remails of the second Mughal Emperor, Humayun. The construction was supervised by his senior widow and mother of Akbar who stayed at the site for the duration and is now buried alongside her husband. It is one of Delhi's finest historical sites, constructed of red sandstone and inlaid with black and white marble. The
octagonal structure, covered with a 38 metre high double dome stands in beautiful gardens. This is the original building on which the Taj Mahal was modelled. Also in the grounds is another mausoleum which houses the grave of Humayun's barber - a man considered very important because he was trusted with holding a razor to the Emperor's throat!
Next we drove into New Delhi and past the Lotus Temple which is one of the remarkable architectures of the Bahai faith. The temple looks like a lotus flower and is made of marble, cement, dolomite and sand.
The final stop on our tour of Delhi was the best. This was the Qutab Minar Tower complex. The main feature is the tower itself which stands 72 metres high and was built by Qutub-ud-din in 1173. The tower has 5 distinct storeys, each with a projecting balcony. The base of the Minar (tower) is 15 metres in diameter and the top just 2.5 metres in diameter, an amazing piece of work. Unfortunately it has not been possible to climb the tower for several years. At its base is the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, the first mosque to be built in India. Sometime in
the past the Sultan Ala-ud-Din had planned to build a tower even taller than the Qutab Minar, but his Alai Minar never made it beyond the 1st storey which still stands unfinished in the complex.
We then returned to the hotel for a G & T and dinner before bed.
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Tony
non-member comment
Delhi ghtful
Sorry irresistible :)