Delhi Walks Pt.2

This walk took us to the 4th city of Delhi, the ruins of the seat of power of Muhammad bin Tughalq established in 1326.  He built a city and a fort to protect his empire from the constant threat of Mongols, and called his city Jahanpahah meaning in Persian "refuge of the world."  Jahanpahah was built from an existing fort and other fortified establishments stretching out to Siri Fort.  Very little of the fort or the city remain, only the foundations of some of the buildings, ruins from tombs and mosques, and crumbling bits of what must have been very extensive city walls.

The courtyard for the Hazar Sutun, or the Hall of a Thousand Pillars, which is believed to have been used as a hall of public audience where the king held court. 

We climbed up some ancient stairs to get to the roof, and had to carefully avoid falling through the cracks!

Some of the remaining "thousand pillars."

The remains of a tomb.

The east gate, entrance into the courtyard for the Begampur Mosque.

Our next walk took us from the area of Turkman Gate to Jama Masjid.  We started on an amazingly busy and chaotic Delhi street, where we turned off down a back alley and within a surprisingly short distance came across this church which seemed to be in its own world.  None of us could believe how quiet and peaceful it was, we had completely left the city behind!

This small co-ed school is supported and run by the church.

Our tour guide showed us around a bit and then sang us a hymn in Hindi.  I recognized the tune but none of the words, which was a little bit disconcerting.  She grew up on the church grounds and has been one of its caretakers her entire adult life.

Such an interesting lady! She was born and raised here but has no idea how old she is.  She seemed to be really happy to have visitors, and was immensely proud of the church and the school.

We continued our walk through a Muslim area of town to see some interesting architectural details our guide wanted to point out.  We walked through areas that were very much like a rabbit warren, with narrow lanes that were often very dark and dusty.  This is not a place that I would be able to find again, so these pictures of doors and columns will have to suffice!

We ended our tour at this one-room library, where the same family has been keeping histories and books, many of them hand written, for hundreds of years.  Although they are a Muslim family and were supposed to leave India at the time of the partition, they chose to stay in hiding rather than leave their home and their books.

The current librarian holding his family tree, with his father who is 104 sitting next to him.