Qutb Minar

Traveling in India, we needed to get used to different but familiar-sounding terms for some of the sights we were visiting. For example, the the signs leading to a mosque show "masjid." What we know as a minaret, Indians refer to as "minar." So the next stop on our tour was India's tallest brick tower. Qutb Minar is a massive 238 foot minaret built in the 12th and 13th century. Separate from but associated with the minaret is a mosque (Quwwat-ul-Islam Masjid) dating from the year 1198 and several other monuments. The main site is now a ruin, although it is beyond me how a structure this old can appear so well preserved. Our guide insisted the buildings are original, with only routine maintenance and renovations being done through the years.

Our bus dropped us at a parking lot and we walked through a small market to the entrance to the site. The market was teeming with people who appeared to be visitors to the complex and the vendors were catering to them. One particularly interesting stand was dispensing some sort of drink to a long line of waiting customers. There was an array of brightly colored syrups and also some lemons and limes but the main ingredient was unfiltered water. It was not a treat destined for our tummies. The most curious thing was that they were using glass glasses to hold the liquid. As a customer finished his drink, he handed his glass to a helper who rinsed it out and used it for another customer. Alas, we were moving too fast to get a picture.

The group gathered under a massive ficus tree that had its trunk entirely encased in concrete. This concrete based served as a convenient wall to sit on or lean against while Janesh briefed us on the history and significance of the Qutb Complex. Parts of the complex date from before the 4th century. Before this was a Muslim place, a massive Jain temple complex stood here. The Mullahs used a lot of the material from the disassembled temples to build the Qutb Complex.

We entered the interior of the masjid though a colonnade of stone pillars.

The mosque is open; it doesn't have, and never did have, a roof. It is the largest mosque in India (although I'm not sure the present tense is appropriate since it is no longer active). It consists of a courtyard

bordered on two sides by cloisters made up of a forest of carved columns.

At one end of the massive courtyard sits an iron pillar, named the Iron Pillar, made of 99.9% pure iron, according to our guide Janesh. This pillar is a metallurgical wonder even to modern science because even after 16 centuries it hasn't rusted. It is believed to be forged in the 4th century as a standard of the God Vishnu. I found it curious that a Muslim ruler would want a pillar closely associated with a Hindu god in his mosque.









We had about 20 minutes to wonder around the complex and snap pictures. In addition to the mosque the complex also contains the tomb of the Sultan Iltutmish, who built the two top stories of Qutb Minar in the early 13th century,

and the tomb and madrash of Sultan Ala-ud-din Khiji, dating from 1316.

This Sultan is important because he was responsible for greatly expanding the mosque and for authorising construction of the Alai Minar, which was abandoned after his death in 1316. The Alai Minar was supposed to twice as tall as Qutb Minar but only the first story was completed.

We got our pictures, then hung around in the shade of the ficus tree waiting for the rest of the group. Carol, Kathleen and Norma charmed a group of Indian youths who made a big deal of getting their picture. This was a recurring theme throughout our trip. Indian locals found us as fascinating as we found them and didn't miss any opportunities to use their cameras on us. We made all us feel less obtrusive about taking pictures of local people.

We spent the rest of the time enjoying the antics of the local squirrels, which were amazingly difficult to photograph. We couldn't decide exactly what kind of rodent these creatures were. They looked like extremely large chipmunks but acted like tiny squirrels. Janesh informed us that they were Indian Striped Squirrels, a fact validated by Wikipedia. They are also called Three-Striped Palm Squirrels and are pretty cute little guys.

Click here to view or download all of the photos we took at Qutb Minar.