Page 85 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

DELHI  83

Athpula, the 17th-century bridge near the entrance to Lodi Gardens on South End Road
w Lodi Gardens e Purana Qila red and white marble and
slate. To the south of the
Entrance on Lodi Rd & South End Rd. Mathura Rd. Tel (011) 2435 4260.
q Jor Bagh. Open daily. 0 q Pragati Maidan. Open sunrise– mosque is Humayun’s library,
sunset daily. Museum: Tel (011) 2435 known as Sher Mandal. A
Lodi Gardens is one of Delhi’s 5387. Open 9am–5pm. Closed Friday. double-storeyed octagonal
most picturesque parks, and & Tickets: from site and the Delhi tower of red sandstone, it is
a favourite haunt of joggers, Tourism office. crowned by an elaborate chhatri
yoga enthusiasts, political (open pavilion), supported
bigwigs accompanied by their Purana Qila, literally “Old by eight pillars. This was the
bodyguards, and families who Fort”, stands on an ancient tragic spot where the devout
come to picnic on weekends. site that has been emperor, hurrying to kneel on
Landscaped at the behest of continuously occupied the steps for the evening
Lady Willingdon, the vicereine, since 1000 BC, as prayer, missed his footing
in 1936, the park acts as a archaeological and tumbled to his
“green lung” for the people of excavations have death in January 1556.
Delhi. Its tree-lined pathways revealed. The The ramparts of the
and well-kept lawns and brooding ramparts Purana Qila have three
flowerbeds are laid out around of the fort now enclose principal gateways, of
the imposing 15th-century the remains of the sixth which the imposing
tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi city of Delhi, Dinpanah red sandstone Talaagi
dynasties, Delhi’s last sultans. (see p95), which was Darwaza on the
Many of them still have traces begun by the second Chhatri with western wall is
of the original turquoise Mughal emperor, decorative tilework the main entrance.
tile work and calligraphy. Humayun. His reign, Humayun’s Tomb
The elegantly proportioned however, was short and in (see p87) can be seen from
octagonal Tomb of Muhammad 1540 he was overthrown by the the southern gate.
Shah (r.1434–45), the third Afghan chieftain Sher Shah Suri
ruler of the Sayyid dynasty, (see p53). Sher Shah added
is said to be the oldest in several new structures and
the garden. The largest of the renamed the citadel Shergarh
structures is the Bara Gumbad (“Lion’s Fort”). After Sher Shah’s
(“Big Dome”) with an attached death Humayun regained his
mosque built in 1494, and throne. Of the many palaces,
a guesthouse. At the South barracks and other edifices built
End Road entrance to the by these two rulers, only Sher
gardens is a lovely stone Shah’s mosque and a building
bridge called Athpula (literally that was probably Humayun’s
“eight piers”), said to date library remain standing today.
from the 17th century. To its The Qila-i-Kuhna Mosque,
west are ramparts that enclose built in 1541, is a superbly
the Tomb of Sikander Lodi proportioned structure with The red sandstone gate, or Talaagi
(r.1489–1517). fine decorative inlay work in Darwaza, Purana Qila

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