Delhi
India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan & Lutyens' New Delhi
Lutyens' New Delhi (the planned colonial capital city designed by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, built 1911-1931 as the new capital of British India, replacing Calcutta) — centred on the 3-kilometre ceremonial axis from India Gate (the war memorial arch) to Rashtrapati Bhavan (the Presidential Palace) via Kartavya Path (formerly Rajpath) — is one of the great examples of 20th-century imperial urban planning, the architectural expression of British imperial power in India at its peak.
Agra Day Trip — The Taj Mahal, Agra Fort & Fatehpur Sikri
Agra (200 kilometres south of Delhi, 2-3 hours by the Gatimaan Express or Shatabdi Express train) — the former Mughal capital of Akbar the Great and Shah Jahan and the site of the most celebrated building in the world: the Taj Mahal (Taj Bibi ka Maqbara — the white marble mausoleum built by Emperor Shah Jahan 1632-1653 in memory of his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth in 1631) — is the most popular day trip destination from Delhi and the single building that brings more international tourists to India than any other.
Red Fort, Chandni Chowk & Old Delhi — Mughal Imperial Heart
Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad — the walled city built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 1638-1648 as his new capital, replacing Agra) centred on the Red Fort (Lal Qila, UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the Chandni Chowk bazaar is the most historically dense area of Delhi and one of the most intensely atmospheric urban environments in the world — the surviving 17th-century imperial Mughal city where the street pattern, the bazaars, and many of the buildings remain largely unchanged since the reign of Shah Jahan.
Humayun's Tomb, Qutb Minar & Lodhi Garden — Delhi's Medieval Heritage
Delhi's medieval and early Mughal architectural heritage — Humayun's Tomb (1572, UNESCO, the first great Mughal garden tomb and the direct precursor of the Taj Mahal), the Qutb Minar complex (1193, UNESCO, the finest example of Delhi Sultanate architecture and the world's tallest brick minaret), and Lodhi Garden (the walled garden containing the tombs of the Sayyid and Lodhi dynasty sultans, 15th-16th century) — constitutes one of the greatest concentrations of medieval Islamic architecture outside the Middle East.
National Gallery of Modern Art, Safdarjung's Tomb & South Delhi
The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA Delhi — Jaipur House, Rajpath, New Delhi, housed in the former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur, a 1936 building redesigned as a gallery in 1954) is the premier museum of Indian modern and contemporary art, housing approximately 14,000 works spanning 1857 to the present — from the Company School paintings of the early colonial period to the Bengal Renaissance, the Bombay Progressives, and contemporary Indian installation art.
Delhi Street Food — Paranthas, Chhole Bhature & Old Delhi Culinary Heritage
Delhi's food culture is one of the richest and most diverse in India — shaped by the 350-year Mughal imperial culinary tradition, the North Indian Punjabi tradition of dairy-rich dairy and wheat-based food, the Hindu Brahmin vegetarian tradition, the Muslim biryani and kebab traditions of Shahjahanabad, and the Rajasthani, Bengali, and South Indian cuisines brought to Delhi by migrants from across India: the result is the most comprehensive single-city food culture in India, accessible from the street stalls of Chandni Chowk to the refined restaurants of Connaught Place.
Purana Qila — The Old Fort & the National Zoological Park
Purana Qila (Old Fort — the massive 16th-century fortress built by the Afghan king Sher Shah Suri (1538-1545) on the site believed to be the mythological city of Indraprastha (the Pandava capital from the Mahabharata), subsequently modified by Mughal Emperor Humayun): the fort (surrounded by a large moat, with three massive gateways — the Bara Darwaza (Great Gate), the Humayun Darwaza, and the Talaqi Darwaza (Forbidden Gate) — and the Qila-i-Kuhna Mosque (Sher Shah's private mosque, 1541, one of the finest examples of the Sur dynasty architectural style) is one of the most dramatically situated fortresses in Delhi, with the National Zoological Park (the Delhi Zoo) adjacent on the west.
Dilli Haat & the Crafts of India — Traditional Arts from Across the Subcontinent
Dilli Haat (IFC, Aurobindo Marg, South Delhi — the open-air craft bazaar operated by the Delhi Tourism Corporation, where artisans from every state of India are given two-week stalls on a rotating basis to sell their traditional crafts directly to the public): Dilli Haat is the most accessible introduction to the full diversity of Indian traditional crafts available in a single location — every visit features a different selection of artisans representing the craft traditions of different states, from Kashmiri carpet weavers and papier-mâché artists to Rajasthani block printers, Madhubani painters from Bihar, Warli tribal artists from Maharashtra, Kanjivaram silk weavers from Tamil Nadu, and Manipuri bamboo craftsmen from the Northeast.
Khan Market, Lodhi Road & the Cultural Institutions of New Delhi
Khan Market (the upmarket shopping street in central New Delhi, built in the 1950s to serve the Government of India civil servants and diplomatic community, now consistently ranked among the most expensive retail locations in the world) and the Lodhi Road cultural corridor (the stretch of road from Khan Market south through the diplomatic enclave to the Habitat Centre and the India International Centre) form the intellectual and cultural heart of Lutyens' Delhi — the area where India's governing elite, academic community, foreign diplomats, and journalists have lived and worked since independence.