Delhi is not one city but eight, each capital abandoned by the next. This route walks the layers in order: Tomar and Khalji ruins, Lodi and Sayyid tombs, Sher Shah's fortress, Mughal Nizamuddin, Lutyens' imperial grid and the archives of 1947.
Delhi's oldest standing monument: Qutbuddin Aibak's 72.5m victory tower begun 1199, and India's first mosque, built from the carved pillars of 27 demolished Jain and Hindu temples. The 4th-century Iron Pillar in the courtyard has not rusted in 1,600 years.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq's third city of Delhi, thrown up in four years from 1321 and abandoned within fifteen, allegedly under the saint Nizamuddin's curse: 'Ya rahe ujjar, ya base gujjar.' Six kilometres of cyclopean rubble walls, still largely unexcavated.
Ninety acres holding the 15th-century tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi sultans, the dynasties Babur overthrew in 1526. Muhammad Shah's octagonal tomb of 1444 and the Bara Gumbad mosque show the transition from sultanate austerity to Mughal ornament.
Humayun's Dinpanah, seized by Sher Shah Suri in 1540. Humayun died falling down the stairs of the Sher Mandal library in 1556. ASI digs beneath the ramparts have reached Painted Grey Ware layers dated to roughly 1000 BCE — Delhi's oldest occupation.
Built 1565–72 by Haji Begum for the second Mughal emperor, the first great garden-tomb in India and the acknowledged template for the Taj Mahal. Bahadur Shah Zafar was captured here by Hodson in September 1857, ending Mughal rule.
The house where Gandhi spent his last 144 days and was shot by Nathuram Godse on 30 January 1948 at 17:17 while walking to evening prayer. Concrete footprints mark his final steps to the Martyr's Column; his spectacles, watch and sandals sit in the bedroom.
Two hundred thousand objects covering five millennia: the Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro (c. 2500 BCE), Harappan seals, Gupta bronzes, Mughal miniatures and the relics of the Buddha from Piprahwa. Closed Mondays; audio guide included in the foreign ticket.
Lutyens' 1931 imperial axis. The 42m arch carries 13,300 names of Indian soldiers killed in the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War; the empty canopy behind it held George V's statue until 1968, and now holds Netaji Bose's.
Opened 2023 inside the 17th-century residence of Shah Jahan's eldest son. Oral testimonies, refugee registration cards and objects carried across the new border in 1947 tell the story of the 15 million displaced and Delhi's transformation by Punjabi refugees.
A 700-year-old living settlement around the 1325 shrine of the Chishti saint. Amir Khusrau, the poet who shaped Hindustani, lies beside him; Jahanara Begum's open-to-the-sky grave is inscribed 'let nothing but green grass cover my tomb.'
Alauddin Khalji dug the tank in 1296 to water Siri, the second city; Firoz Shah Tughlaq wrapped it in an L-shaped madrasa in 1352 and was buried inside it. Timur camped here in 1398 before sacking Delhi and slaughtering its population.
The last structure the Mughals ever built: Bahadur Shah Zafar's summer palace and the Hathi Gate, beside the empty grave plot he prepared for himself before dying exiled in Rangoon in 1862. The Lodi-era Jahaz Mahal stands across the Hauz-i-Shamsi tank.