Qadam Sharif was originally built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq (14th c.) as a tomb for his son Fateh Khan, but the structure has been heavily altered since. The tomb, now located in the Pahar Ganj area, was enclosed inside an irregular kot (fortification) with gateways to the north and east. Little remains of these fortifications …
While exploring Old Delhi and adjoining areas like Sadar Bazaar and Pahar Ganj, I’ve come across some deliciously intriguing decades-old cinema halls. Some are doing fine, some just getting along, while some seem to have shut shop or might be under litigation. This post is a visual exploration of those theaters – I haven’t gone …
The Kashmiri Gate area of Shahjahanabad is the small bit that lies to the north of Old Delhi railway station, while the bulk of Shahjahanabad lies to its south. A railway station in 19th c. Delhi had become a necessity due to the growing rail network of British India and the increasing British interest in …
Way back in November 2009 I had posted the previous in my Dilli Darshan series of posts, covering the Khari Baoli and Katra Neel areas of Shahjahanabad. That was the first in what was to be a set of posts covering Shahjahanabad, which I am now continuing! That first Shahjahanabad post gives a bit of …
The four mosques discussed in this post are among the earliest royally-sanctioned mosques in north India, dating from the last decade of the 12th c and first decade of the 13th c (1190-1210 AD). All four were built in the wake of the conquest of north India by the armies of Mohammad Ghouri, and are …
A Brief History of Shahjahanabad Carrying on with my Dilli Darshan posts, I’m going to put up a series of them about Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi). Shahjahanabad is the 17th century Mughal walled city that also contained the Mughal palace and court, and which was the occupied part of Delhi during the time the British took …
After my Old Delhi cinema halls post I remembered a theater that lay along my usual commute in Delhi when I was younger. The cinema hall was called Shalimar, located the Siddharth Enclave area near Ashram Chowk, and in my memory resembled a large shed with sloping asbestos (?) sheet roofing. I used to notice … Continue reading »
Badarpur sarai, around which the urban village of Badarpur grew, was a rest-stop on the road between Delhi and Agra. All that visibly remains today of the 18th c. sarai are three gateways, remnants of the enclosing wall and a mosque, which has been much altered since. Till a couple of years ago, Delhiites may … Continue reading »
I’ve been taking lots of photos of Delhi Metro’s structures and posting them on my Chasing The Metro blog, and have added just a few of them below. Visit the blog to go through the photos, or see them in their flickr collection. . Airport Express, Shivaji Stadium station entrance Green Line, near Ashok Park … Continue reading »
I visited Lado Sarai for the first time to take a look at the few historical structures still standing there. While the structures are small and few, they are interesting to visit for various reasons. There are a couple of nameless tombs, one mosque and a dargah just outside the village. All three structures within … Continue reading »
Many Dilliwalas are familiar with the portion of the fortifications of Qila Rai Pithora (which date back to the 12th c. AD) that are visible along Press Enclave Road along the Qutb Golf Course boundary. There was also a portion of the wall that stuck out onto Aurobindo Marg just north of Lado Sarai that … Continue reading »
There is a flyover coming up in the Pulbangash/Bara Hindu Rao area of central Delhi, north of the Sadar Bazaar area and west of Old Delhi, that’s going to cut into some parts of Delhi that date back to the late-19th/early-20th c. Most of the buildings have been “updated” since then and much of the … Continue reading »
In my previous post I had mentioned the tomb-mosque complex of Shah Alam in Wazirabad in north Delhi, a saint during Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s time (late 14th c.). While the domes of this complex could always be seen rising above the treeline from the main Ring Road passing behind the structures, the new Wazirabad flyover/bridge … Continue reading »
