Delhi Sightseeing

• Old Fort
• Qutub Minar
• India Gate
• Humayun's Tomb
• Sansad Bhawan
• Rashtrrapati Bhawan
• Jama Masjid

Red Fort
The magnificent Red Fort or Lal Qila was built by the emperor Shah Jahan ad is a part of the walled city of Shahjahanabad. Within its fortifications are exquisite palaces, a finely proportioned mosque the Moti Masjid or Pearl Mosque, the Diwan-i -Am or hall of public audience and the finely ornamented Diwan-Khas or hall pouf private audience, where the Mughal emperors held court seated o the bejeweled golden Peacock Throe.
 

Jama Masjid
The great mosque of Old Delhi is both 1 largest in India and the final architecture extravagance of Shah Jahan. Commences 1644, the mosque was not completed 1658. It has three great gateways, four an towers and two minarets standing 40 met high and constructed of alternating verity strips of red sandstone and white marble. 

Broad flights of steps lead up to the imposing gateways. The eastern gateway was originally only opened for the emperor, and now only open on Fridays and Musleem festival days. The general public can enter either the north or south gate  Shoes should be removed and those people considered unsuitably dressed (bare legs for either men or women) can hire robes at the Northgate. The courtyard of the mosque has a capacity of 25,000 people. For it's possible climb the southern minaret, and the views all directions arc superb-Old Delhi, the Red Fort and the polluting factories beyond it across the river, and New Delhi to the south. You can also see one of the features that the architect Lutyens incorporated into his design of New Delhi - the Jama Masjid, Connaught Place and Sansad Bhavan (Par-liament House) are in a direct line. There's also a fine view of the Red port from the east side of the mosque.  
 

Feroz shah Kotla
Erected by Feroz Shah Tughlaq in 1354, the ruins of Ferozabad, the fifth city of Delhi can be found at Feroz Shah Kotla, Just off Bahadur Shah Zafur Marg between the old and new Delhi's. In the frortress-places is a 13-metre-high sadstone Ashoka pillar inscribed with Ashoa's edicts The remains of an old mosque and a fine well can also be seen in the area, but most of the ruins of Ferozabad were used for the construction of later cities.
 

Rajghat
North-east of Feroz Shah Kotla, on the banks of the Yamuna, a simple square platform of black marble marks of the spot where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated following his assassination in 1948. A commemorative ceremony takes place each Friday, the day he was killed. The Raj Ghat area is now a beautiful park complete with labeled trees planted by a mixed bag of notables including Queen Eliabeth II, Gough Whitlam Dwight Eisenhower and Ho Chi Minn !
 

India Gate
This 42 meter high stone arch of triumph stands at the eastern end of the Rajpath. It bears the name of 90, 000 Indian Army soldiers who died in the campaigns of WWI the North-West Frontier operations of the same time and the 1919 Fagan fiasco.
 

Jantar Mantar
Only a short stroll down Sansad Marg from Connaught Place, this strange collection of salmon-coloured structures is one of Maharaja Jai Singh It's observatories. The ruler from Jaipur constructed this observatory in 1725 and it is dominated by a huge sundial known as the Prince of Dials. Other instruments plot the course of heavenly bodies and predict eclipes.
 

Rastrapati Bhavan
The official residence of the President of India stands at the opposite end of the Rajpath from India Gate. Completed in 1929, the place-like building is a blend of Mughal and Western architectural styles, the most obvious India feature being the huge copper dome. To the west of the building is a Mughal garden which occupies 130 hectares, and this is open to the public in February. Prior to Independence this was the viceroy's residence. At the time of Mountbatten. India's last viceroy, the number of servants needed to maintain the 340 rooms and its extensive gardens was enormous. There were 418 gardeners alone, 50 of them boys whose sole job was to chase away birds!
 

Sansad Bhavan
Although another large and imposing building, Sansad Bhavan, the Indian parliament building, stands almost hidden and virtually unnoticed at the end of Sansad Marg. or Parliament St, just north of Rajpath. The building is a circular colonnaded structure 171 metres in diameter. Its relative physical insignificance in the grand shame of New Delhi shows how the focus of power has shifted from the viceroy's residence, which was given pride of place during the time of the British Raj when New Delhi was concaved.
Permits to visit the parliament and sit in the public gallery are available from the reception office on Raisina Rd, but you'll need a letter of introduction form your embassy.
 

Lotus Temple
Lying to the east of Siri is this building shaped like a lotus flower. Built between 1980 and 1986, it is set amongst pools and gardens, and adherents of any faith are free to vist the temple and pray or meditate silently according to their own religion. It looks particularly spectacular at dusk when it is floodlit. The temple is open to visitors from April to September. daily except Monday from 9 am to 7 pm. and October to March from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm.
 

Purana Qula / Old Fort 
Just South-east of India Gate and north of Humayun's Tomb and the Nizamuddin railway station is the old fort. Purana Qula. This is the suppossed site of Indraprasth, the original city of Delhi. The Afghan ruler, Sher Shah, who briefly interrrupted the Mughal Empire by defeating Humanyun, completed the fort during his regn from 1538-45, before Humayun regained control of India. The fort has massive walls and three large gateways.Entering from the sough gage you'll see the small octagonal red sandstone tower, the Sher Mandal, later used by Humayun, as a library. It was while descending the stairs of this tower one day in 1556 that he slipped fell and received injuries from which he later died .
 

Humayun's Tomb
Built in the mid-16th century by Haji Begum, senior wife of Humayn, the second Mughal emperor, this is an early example of Mughal architecture. The elements in its design- a squat building, lighted by high arched entrances, topped by a bulbous dome and surrounded by formal gardens where to be refined over the years to the  magnificence of the Taj Mahal in Agra. This earlier tomb is thus of great interest for its relation to the later Taj. Humayun's wife is also buried in the red-and-white sandstone. black and yellow marble tomb.
Other tombs in the garden include that of Humayun's barber and the Tomb of Isa Khan, a good example of Lidi architecture. 
 

Qutub Minar
The buildings in this complex, 15 km south of Delhi, date from the onset of Muslim rule in India and are fine examples of early Afghan architecture. The Qutub Minar itself is a soaring tower of victory which was started in 1193, immediately after the defeat of the last Hindu kingdom in Delhi. It is nearly 73 metres high and tapers from a 15-metre diameter base to just 2.5 metres at the stop. The tower has five distances stories, each market by a projecting balcony. The first three storeys are made of red sandstone. the fourth and fifth of marble and sandstone.  Although Qutub-ud-din began construction of the tower, he only got to the first story. 
Today, this impressively ornate tower has a slight tilt, but otherwise has worn the centuries remarkably well. The tower is closed to visitors. and has been for some years after a stampede during a school trip led to a number of deaths