Saturday, April 11, 2009

Delhi Darshan - 2

After the start of trips on friday, today, i.e on saturday the 11th of April, I was all set to continue exploring Delhi. I had decided to go to Qutub Minar already, alone. I started at around 11 AM from the guest house, took a bus towards Mehrauli and got down the the Qutub. It was hardly 5 kms from our guest house. A tall monument stood before me with all its elegance. I was just wonderstruck by the view of the Qutub. I purchased the tickets and entered the place. Here are a few pics of the Minar..


There are 4 floors, tapering towards the sky. Some inscriptions in Urdu were written on all the floors.


Besides the Qutub is the tomb of Imam Zamim. Itseems this guy came from Turkestan to Delhi in the reign of Sikandar Lodi and built this mausoleum in his lifetime and died. It is surmounted by a dome of sandstone covered with plaster and rising from an octogonal drum. Its sides are carved with perforated screens, characteristic of the Lodi period.


Also on the left side of Qutub is the Alai Darwaza, described as one of the most treasured gems of Islamic architecture, built by Allaudin Khalji.


Next to the Alai Darwaza, there are some broken remains of some Madrasas.



Walking along, there was the tomb of Iltumush.


Close by, there is the world famous Iron pillar, but nobody was allowed to touch it.


At some distance, was the Alai Minar, which was supposed to be double the size of Qutub, but due to the death of Allaudin Khalji, the tower could not be completed.


A pic of both the towers..


At around 12:45 PM, I completed the Qutub tour and was hungry. I checked out some hotels nearby, but couldn't find one. So, I decided to have food somewhere in Green Park and get back to the guest house and sleep for a while as it was very sunny.


Again, I had a good tour of the Qutub. Waiting for the next explorations...



For more info on the Qutub, click here and here.

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