Tag Archives: Old Delhi
DAILY PHOTO: Lahori Gate of Red Fort
DAILY PHOTO: The Walls of Red Fort
DAILY PHOTO: Alcove Geometries
DAILY PHOTO: Delhi From the Minaret
DAILY PHOTO: Pigeon Town Hall Assembly
DAILY PHOTO: Red Fort
This white marble palace constructed in the Indo-Islamic style is one of the more impressive structures in Old Delhi’s Red Fort.
The Red Fort should be visited before visiting Agra Fort, because it should be seen but it’s not as impressive as its Agra kin. I did it the other way around, and the Red Fort was a disappointment by comparison. The grounds aren’t kept up, most of the semi-precious gemstone inlays are missing from the ornately carved marble, and the fort houses an architectural hodgepodge. That being said, the red sandstone walls are imposing and magnificent and the few historic structures are quite impressive–if not as much so as in Agra.
DAILY PHOTO: Chandni Chowk Street Food
Ummm! Fried breads.
Chandni Chowk is a major bazaar street that runs west from the Red Fort in Old Delhi. It’s a solid traffic jam from about 8:30am to 10:30pm. Bicycle rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, oxcarts, and automobiles can all be seen inching down the boulevard.
One can get cloth, sweets, suits, or glasses on the cheap.
7:00am gives one an entirely different perspective. There are people bathing in the streets from communal spigots. There are long lines of individuals, mostly men waiting to see the street doctor, who–right on the sidewalk–is bandaging up a badly swollen foot. There are worshipers entering the Sikh temple. There is little traffic, but pallets of materials piled in the street outside some businesses.
DAILY PHOTO: Jama Masjid
This is India’s largest mosque. It is capable of holding 25,000 worshipers–mostly in that open courtyard that can apparently be covered as needed.) It dates back to the rule of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan–who you may know of from his requisitioning of the Taj Mahal.
It’s located in Old Delhi and is usually matched with trips to the Red Fort and Chandni Chowk (a huge bazaar street), which are both nearby.
It’s mostly Red sandstone with white marble, as was common of Shah Jahan’s other monumental structures.
[I realize it’s a cheat that I’ve posted two “Daily Photos” in a couple of hours of one another, but it’s a new day in the States–and I’ve got a ton of photos from my recent trip.]