Delhi
Your first impression of Delhi is unlikely to be a good one, particularly if it's also your first impression of India. You'll most likely notice the pollution, the crowds, the smell, the noise and the ceaseless hassles long before you notice the city's charms. But it's worth persevering: the history of this city is fascinating, and it's all around you; the bazaars of Paharganj are a wonderful introduction to India's backpacker trail; the city's monuments are among the most architecturally striking in the country; and the food here is great.

Delhi is the capital of India, and it's also the travel hub of northern India. It's an excellent base for visiting Agra and the Taj Mahal, and the Rajasthani colour of Jaipur is less than five hours away. If you're heading north to the Himalaya or east to the ghats of Varanasi, you'll probably pass through Delhi. So you might as well grit your teeth, hold your breath and dive on in.

Destination Facts

Area: 3,287,590 sq km (1,229m737 sq mi)
Population: 14.3 million
Country: India
People: 72% Indo-Aryan, 25% Dravidian, 3% other
Main language: Hindi
Time Zone: MT/UTC plus five hours 30 minutes
Telephone Area Code:11

When to go

One of Delhi's drawbacks is that for more than half the year the climate is lousy. For about five months - from November until the end of March - it is very good, with daytime temperatures between 21 and 30°C (70-86°F). By the end of April it's hot, while May and June are intolerable. In July it gets cooler but the humidity really hits, with all-day rain through August and September. The hugely colourful Republic Day march is held in January, while the exuberant Hindu festival of Holi takes place in February or March.

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History

Popular Hindu mythology purports that Delhi was the site of the fabled city of Indraprastha, which featured in the Mahabharata over 3000 years ago, but historical evidence suggests that the area has been settled for around 2500 years. Since the 12th century, Delhi has seen the rise and fall of seven major powers. The Chauhans took control in the 12th century and made Delhi the most important Hindu centre in northern India. When Qutab-ud-din Aibak occupied the city in 1193, he ushered in six and a half centuries of Muslim rule. The Delhi Sultanate lasted from 1206 to 1526, despite its inconsistent rule, and was followed by the mighty Moghuls from 1526 to 1857. The basis of what is today 'Old' Delhi, including the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid, was built during the reign of the Moghul emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658).

In 1803, the British captured Delhi and installed a British administrator. Delhi was not the capital of India at the time, but it was an important commercial centre and had a population of 150,000 by the start of the 20th century. When the British decided to make Delhi the capital in 1911, they built New Delhi in a grandiose imperial style, as if the sun would never set on the British Raj.

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Only 16 years after the city was inaugurated as the nation's capital, Delhi was torched during the trauma of Partition. In a matter of weeks it was transformed from a Muslim-dominated city of less than a million inhabitants to a largely Hindu city of almost two million. Today, very few city residents can lay claim to being 'real' Delhi-wallahs, and most of the population of New Delhi comprises Hindu Punjabi families originally from Lahore.

Since Independence, Delhi has prospered as the capital of India. In the past decade, its population has increased by 50%, largely due to rapid economic expansion and increased job opportunities. The downside of this boom is increased overcrowding, traffic congestion, housing shortages and pollution.

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Events

Holi, in February or March, is one of the most exuberant Hindu festivals. To mark the end of winter, people chuck large quantities of coloured water and powder at one another - tourists are not excluded. In March or April, Hindus celebrate the birth of Rama by reading the Ramayana at temples throughout the city. In April or May, Sikhs have a similar celebration, Baisakhi where the holy book, the Granth Sahib is read, followed by feasting and dancing.

If you're in Delhi in July, don't miss the International Mango Festival, when Talkatora Stadium hosts hundreds of varieties of the heavenly fruit. August and September are happy festival months - during Ganesh Chaturthi the elephant-headed god gets heaps of attention, while on Janmashtami Krishna's birth is celebrated with plenty of mischief-making. Ram Lila, India's most popular festival, runs over 10 days in September or October - the Ramayana is reenacted and huge images of the demon Ravana are burnt. In late October, Hindu households light oil lamps to guide the god Rama home from exile, during the festival of Diwali, which is also known as the festival of sweets.

Delhi's Muslims clebrate the usual Muslim festivals. During Ramadan, the most important, Muslims fast from dawn to dusk to commemorate the revelation of the Qu'ran to Mohammed. When Ramadan ends, Muslims celebrate Id-ul-Fitr by eating a great deal and praying at the Jama Masjid.

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Activities

If you've got a dollar in your pocket, a Hermes scarf in your suitcase and you like mixing it with the city's elite, Delhi has sporting facilities to spare, including gyms, tennis courts and billiards tables. There's also a beautiful golf course at the Delhi Golf Club, but once again you'll need to be cashed up. Most of the major hotels have swimming pools, or if you've had your hepatitis injections you could take a dip in the public pool in the Talkatora Gardens.

Delhi isn't renowned for its water bodies, but if you're prepared to risk feeling silly you can hire a dinghy for a paddle in the pools along Rajpath, or you can take a pedal boat out on the Purana Qila moat. If that's not extreme enough for you, try the rock climbing on the artificial wall on Benito Juarez Marg, or the real thing at Lado Sarai adventure park.

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Attractions

Red Fort

The red sandstone walls of the massive Red Fort (Lal Qila) rise 33m (108ft) above the clamour of 'Old' Delhi as a reminder of the magnificent power and pomp of the Moghul emperors. The walls, built in 1638, may have been designed to keep out invaders, but today they mainly keep out the noise and confusion of the city, making the fort and its gardens and pavilions a peaceful haven from the surrounding chaos. The fort's main gate, the Lahore Gate, is one of the emotional and symbolic focal points of the modern Indian nation and attracts a major crowd each Independence Day.

Souveniers for sale at Nizam-ud-din's Shrine. Photograph by Richard l'Anson.

The vaulted arcade of Chatta Chowk, an impressive covered bazaar now dedicated to selling tourist junk, leads into the huge fort compound. Inside is a veritable treasure trove of buildings, including the Drum House, the Hall of Public Audiences, the white marble Hall of Private Audiences, the Pearl Mosque, Royal Baths and Palace of Colour. An evening sound and light show re-creates events in India's history connected with the fort. It's well worth seeing the show, but make sure you bring that modern self-defence system - mosquito repellent.

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Jama Masjid

The great mosque of 'Old' Delhi is the largest in India, with a courtyard capable of holding 25,000 devotees. It was built in 1644 and ended up being the final architectural extravagance of Shah Jahan, the Moghul emperor who also built the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. The highly decorative mosque has three great gateways, four towers and two 40m (135ft) high minarets constructed of strips of red sandstone and white marble. Travelers arriving bare-legged can hire robes at the northern gate. This may be the only time you get to dress like a local without feeling like a prat, so make the most of the hallowed atmosphere.

Worshippers at Friday prayers on the steps of the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. Photograph by Richard l'Anson.

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Chandni Chowk

The main street of 'Old' Delhi is a magnificent bazaar and as fine a monument to congestion, colour and chaos as you'll find in India today. In Shah Jahan's day, it was endowed with fine mansions, had a tree-lined canal flowing down its centre and was renowned throughout Asia; today it's jampacked with artisans, traders and auto-rickshaws and comprises a fantastic cocktail of stench, movement, uproar and fumes. There's a Jain temple at the street's eastern end, near the Red Fort; at the western end is the Fatehpuri Mosque, built by one of Shah Jahan's wives in 1650.

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New Delhi

New Delhi is a monument to British Imperial ambitions solidly set in a city so fluid and chaotic that it took less than 20 years for the entire planned municipality to be historically obsolete. Under the leadership of architect Edward Lutyens, New Delhi was to encapsulate the spirit of British sovereignty in marble, stone and grandeur. The scale of the city and its wide ceremonial avenues echoed Moghul architecture, but the buildings are classical in design and play only the merest lip service to Indian styles. The result is indeed spacious and palatial and, compared to many planned cities of the 20th century, still remarkably useable despite its large unshaded areas. The major landmarks include: Rashtrapati Bhavan (once the Viceroy's House, but now the official residence of the President of India); Parliament House; the north and south Secretariat buildings; the 40m (135ft) stone war memorial known as India Gate and the broad Rajpath, which is flanked with ornamental ponds and is tailor-made for parades. Connaught Place is the day-to-day hub of New Delhi, a good place to shop, and the scene of some fantastic traffic accidents.

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Humayun's Tomb

This grand tomb is the best-preserved example of early Moghul architecture in Delhi and one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Built in the mid-16th century by Haji Begum, wife of Humayun, the second Moghul emperor, it displays elements of Moghul design that were eventually refined and incorporated into the Taj Mahal in Agra. It comprises a squat building with high arched entrances topped by a bulbous dome and surrounded by formal gardens. The gardens also contain the red-and-white sandstone and black-and-yellow marble tomb of Humayun's wife and, somewhat surprisingly, the tomb of Humayun's barber.

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Qutab Minar

Qutab Minar is a soaring, 73m high tower of victory, built in 1193 by Qutab-ud-din immediately after the defeat of Delhi's last Hindu kingdom. It symbolises Islamic rule of the city. The tower has five distinct storeys, each marked by a projecting balcony, and it tapers, like something out of a fairy tale, from a 15m (50ft) diameter at the base to just 2.5m (8ft) at the top. The first three storeys are made of red sandstone, the fourth and fifth storeys of marble and sandstone. The stairs inside the tower coil so steeply that they're enough to make the hardiest climber dizzy and claustrophobic, and it was no surprise when a stampede during a school trip in 1979 resulted in a number of deaths. The inside of the tower has since been closed to visitors.

At the foot of the tower is the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, the first mosque to be built in India. An inscription over its eastern gate provocatively informs that it was built with material obtained from demolishing '27 idolatrous (read Hindu) temples'. A 7m (23ft) high iron pillar stands in the courtyard of the mosque and it's said that if you can encircle it with your hands whilst standing with your back to it, your wish will be fulfilled.

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Off the Beatern Track

Raj Ghat

Raj Ghat, not far from the banks of the Yamuna River, has a simple black marble memorial to Mahatma Gandhi marking the spot where he was cremated following his assassination in 1948. A commemorative ceremony takes place every Friday. Two museums dedicated to Gandhi are nearby. Jawaharlal Nehru was cremated just to the north at Shanti Vana (Forest of Peace). The area is now a beautiful park with labelled trees planted by a mixed bag of notables, including Elizabeth II, Dwight Eisenhower and Ho Chi Minh. The rarely-visited but quite beautiful Zinat-ul Masjid (Most Beautiful of Mosques) towers over Raj Ghat.

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Spice Market

Shop Owner - Delhi. Photograph by Richard l'Anson.

Khari Baoli, the street that runs from the Fatehpuri Mosque to the western edge of the old city, is Delhi's bustling wholesale spice market. It's well worth a wander simply to take in the sights and smells because things have changed little here for centuries. Huge sacks of herbs and spices are still brought to the wholesalers on long, narrow barrows pushed by labourers and there are eye-catching displays of everything from lentils and rice to giant jars of chutneys, pickles, nuts and tea.

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Coronation Durbar Site

Incurable Raj fans looking for a nostalgia fix should head to the Coronation Durbar site, marked by a lone obelisk in a desolate field located in open country north of 'Old' Delhi. It was on this site that, in 1877 and 1903, the durbars were enacted and, in 1911, King George V was declared Emperor of India. Close by there's a walled garden complete with a rogues' gallery of marble statues of former Imperial dignitaries, languishing like disgraced schoolboys out of the public eye. Pride of place goes to a 15m (50ft) high statue of George V that rises ghost-like above the acacia trees. It was placed here after being removed from the canopy midway along Rajpath soon after Independence. Most of Delhi's residents are blissfully unaware of the existence or significance of this place.

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Shalimar Bagh

The Shalimar Garden, which lies on the fringes of the city about 10km (33ft) north-west of 'Old' Delhi, is one of the most important Moghul gardens in the city. This was once the first-night staging post for the Moghuls on their way to Kashmir and Lahore. Aurangzeb was crowned emperor here in 1658. The beautiful central pavilion, the Shish Mahal, was built by Shah Jahan. Although it is in a fairly advanced state of decay, some of the original painted flower decoration has survived and the place has lots of atmosphere.

Flowers for sale at a stall outside Nizam-ud-sin's Shrine. Photograph by Richard l'Anson.

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Getting There & Away

Delhi is India's major gateway for international flights and is a good place to pick up cheap airline tickets. There are domestic flights from Delhi to all major Indian destinations. The main bus station is the Interstate Bus Terminal at Kashmiri Gate, north of the 'Old' Delhi Railway Station. Popular bus routes head into Rajasthan via Jaipur, and to the hill stations of Himachal Pradesh. Delhi is an important rail centre and New Delhi Railway Station is an easy place to make bookings. Useful long-distance trains head east across the Ganges Plain to Calcutta via Varanasi, and south to Mumbai (Bombay) via Agra.

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Getting Around

Delhi's bus system is for thrillseekers, anthropologists and those with time on their hands. Buses are generally hopelessly crowded and driven by maniacs. Avoid them altogether during rush hours; otherwise, try boarding or leaving at the beginning or end of a route because there's more chance of a seat and less chance of being trampled to death. There are some seats reserved for women on the left-hand side of the bus.

There are plenty of metered yellow-and-black taxis, but invariably the meters are out of date, not working or the drivers will simply refuse to use them. Negotiate a fare before you set out. Auto-rickshaws are generally faster than taxis on short trips and cost half the price. Negotiate a fare before you board and make sure your will is in order. Six-seater motorcycle rickshaws run fixed routes at fixed prices and are good value during rush hours. Cycle rickshaws are banned from New Delhi itself, but can be handy for travelling around 'Old' Delhi. Cycling is an excellent way of getting around, especially in New Delhi, where the roads are wide, in good condition and, by Indian standards, uncrowded. At the large traffic roundabouts just take a deep breath and plunge in.

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Recommended Reading

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