Delhi is a combination of eight cities that have been established here from
as early as 900 BC to 1930. It is above all an historic city and an elegant
capital.
Vintage Delhi with its ancient flavours is a colourful collage of the pageant
of Indian history. Dynasties succeeded dynasties and the royal rule continued.
Succeeding emperors built massive forts and palaces. And then the great monarch
of the 17th century, Shah Jehan moved his capital from Agra to Delhi. He commissioned
for his new capital the city of Shahjehanabad, a city so splendid that it
still ignites fierce passion in the hearts of the true aesthete. It was then
that the Red Fort came into being, and with it Chandi Chowk with its magic
streets and fountains. And the Jama Masjid, most majestic of mosques. Aurangazeb
built the Pearl Mosque within the fort.
The awed British added yet another city - New Delhi, the present seat of administration.
Edwin Lutyen’s dream, this Indo-Saracenic city was a perfect blend of
eastern extravagance and western constraint.
Old Delhi
Old Delhi - the 300-year-old walled city built by Emperor Shah Jehan
in 1648 as his capital and named after him. The magnificent Red Fort
built of red sandstone. Within its walls are marble palaces and a grand audience
chamber, the Diwan-i-Khas, where Moghul emperors held court and the Peacock
Throne once stood. Opposite the fort are the black and white onion dome and
minarets of the Jama Masjid, the most elegant mosque in India.
Drive past Kotla Firoze Shah, ruins of an
old fort of the 14th century and the Ashokan Pillar of 3rd
BC. Then visit Raj Ghat, where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated
in 1948. Drive through the old city subject to traffic restrictions.
New Delhi
New Delhi - the new capital designed by Sir Edward Lutyens. Drive past the
Presidential Palace, the Rashtrapati Bhavan
and the secretariat buildings - the centre of all government activity and
down the main avenue, the impressive Rajpath to the World War I memorial arch,
the India Gate, the High Court Building and the Old Fort.
Visit Humayun’s Tomb built in 1565 AD by his grieving
widow Haji Begum, the Qutub Minar, 72 metres high and the
ruins of Quwat-ul-Eslam (Light of Islam) Mosque.
See Delhi’s most curious antique, the uncorroded Iron Pillar,
which dates back to the 4th century AD. Visit the Birla (Laxmi
Narayan) Temple, with its many idols.
Due to traffic restrictions drive through Connaught Place/Circus and Chandni
Chowk is not possible.
