Old Delhi - Red Fort

From Saturday November 6

Today was the day to experience Old Delhi. Not the old, old Delhi, just the Delhi that is older than New Delhi. There have actually been 7 iterations of Delhi. It seems like this area is an ideal place for the capitol of a great kingdom so each of the dynasties would establish a new city bigger and better than the last on a site near where the older, less magnificent city stood. Kind of like a newly dominant male dog lifting his leg over the spot the previous top dog had marked. The British were the last dog to baptize the area with the building of New Delhi. We would visit the Delhi that the Moghuls established in the 16th and 17th centuries. We had two sites to visit - the Red Fort and Jama Mosque - and a neighborhood - Chadni Chowk - to walk.

But first we had the fascinating bus ride through the streets of Delhi. I know I will say this many times in this blog: the streets of India are absolutely mesmerizing, offering sights totally foreign and somewhat shocking to my well-traveled Western eyes. Like this picture of an open air urinal. These are all over Delhi. What's unique about this one is that there are actually two men using it. Usually we see men peeing against any old building wall. I witnessed this several times within 50 yards of one of these latrines. When I would see these toilets, though, I always wondered if women could use them. Not that you see that many women on the street. Everything out of doors seems to be totally dominated by men.

Nearly as fascinating are the modes of transport used in this city. Let's see, here we have a taxicycle, a truckcycle, a motorickshaw - all competing for the street with cars. I guess I've seen similar vehicles before, just not on this scale. But, like I said, just fascinating; I'll never be bored in India as long as I have a window to look out of.

Our first stop was the Red Fort, completed in 1648 after 10 years of construction. The fort was built by Shah Jahan, the same guy who built the Taj Mahal. The Red Fort remained the capitol of Moghul-ruled India until 1847 when the British ousted the last ruler. Security at the Fort was even heavier than what we experienced on the Metro, but without the sandbagged bunkers. The line to go through security looked long but it moved quickly. There were separate lines for men and women, because after you went through a non-functioning metal detector you had to endure a pretty thorough pat-down. The manual search through our bags was also quite thorough.


The Fort itself is well worth visiting, actually a must see in Delhi, but there isn't a lot to comment about in this blog. The one building that really caught my attention was the Diwan-i-Khas where the Sultan held his private audiences. It is the only building in the Fort constructed entirely of marble and has beautiful panels inlaid with semi precious stones. I was impressed with the size of the Fort and the peacefulness of its gardens. We enjoyed our visit here very much. Beyond this description, I'll let you peruse my pictures on Flickr.