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22 Mar 08
It was the Hindu spring festival of colours, Holi. I woke up early in the morning and decided to leave early to walk a small stretch to Hotel Ajanta. In this way I hoped to avoid being coloured. From their hotel room, I peered out cautiously onto the street in front of the hotel. After sometime, we had breakfast and decided to tour parts of New Delhi. First, we headed to the Red Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were told by some hotel staff and auto rickshaw drivers that the Red Fort would not be open today as it is a public holiday. Nevertheless we decided to try our luck. It turns out that most information provided by these people are unreliable as the Red Fort was open.
View the previous post in this series here.
22 Mar 08
It was the Hindu spring festival of colours, Holi. I woke up early in the morning and decided to leave early to walk a small stretch to Hotel Ajanta. In this way I hoped to avoid being coloured. From their hotel room, I peered out cautiously onto the street in front of the hotel. After sometime, we had breakfast and decided to tour parts of New Delhi. First, we headed to the Red Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were told by some hotel staff and auto rickshaw drivers that the Red Fort would not be open today as it is a public holiday. Nevertheless we decided to try our luck. It turns out that most information provided by these people are unreliable as the Red Fort was open.
A shop selling colour powders. These are mixed with water and used to colour everyone!
The colouring has started
Green
Pink
"Want to play colour?", he says after dropping off two tourists that looked like rainbows
Applying colours on each other. I am skeptical of the safety of colours used. The night before, a tv programme was teaching people how to make colours from safe materials.
"No colour, thanks", we replied
We finally found a auto that would take the 4 of us to the Red Fort. A man with multi-colours on a cycle rickshaw.
Eeks. "Don't worry", our driver says, "I'll take your through the Muslim area, they don't celebrate Holi"
We finally reached our destination. This is a Hindu Temple opposite the Red Fort. I had a few purple dots on me as some children got mischievous.
The Red Fort of Delhi. The palace of the Mughal Emperors during the later years. Built by Emperor Shah Jahan (yes, the same person that built the Taj Mahal) to move the capital from Agra to Delhi.
The Red Fort seems more adorned on the outside as compared to the Agra Fort.
The moat of the Red Fort was filled with crocodiles in the past
A dome adorns each tower of the Red Fort
The Lahore Gate is the only entrance to the Red Fort for tourists, entry is 250 Rs (USD 6.25)
The entrance is guarded and security tight. After all, the Red Fort was the scene of a terrorist bombing in 2000.
The second gate that leads through the Chatta Chowk, the covered bazaar. A place lined with souvenir shops.
The line of little white domes that adorn top of the Red Fort gate
Although the walls are red sandstone, they have be sculpted with some art
A lady soldier. They are needed to search the female tourists.
The covered bazaar -- Chatta Chowk. Most shops were closed due to Holi. I personally find nothing interesting here.
The gateway to the Outer court, where the emperor sits on a marble throne
The gateway from the inside
Diwan-I-Am -- the Hall of Public Audience. Here the Mughal Emperor sat on a marble throne.
The marble throne of the Emperor
The Diwan-I-Am has many arches formed by pillars
Panorama of the Inner Court that contains the Rang Mahal (Palace of Colour), Khas Mahal (Private Palace), Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), Hammam (baths), and Masjid (Mosque), from right to left.
Rang Mahal (Palace of Colour). This should be where the emperor's wives lived. Most of the waterways and fountains in the palace compound are interconnected but now run dry.
The interior of the Rang Mahal is rather exposed. It makes me wonder where the rooms are.
The Khas Mahal -- the emperor's residence.
The Khas Mahal, like most of the other palace buildings, used to be heavily decorated
The Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), where the emperor welcomed special guests
Decorative pillar of semi-precious stones etched in white marble. Similar to those at the Taj Mahal.
Every building here seems to have an "open" concept. Probably due to the heat.
The emperor's throne in the Diwan-i-Khas
The Royal Hammam (baths)
The Moti-Masjid (Pearl Mosque) used by the Emperor
Doorway of the Moti-Masjid
Some other buildings beyond the Moti-Masjid. The buildings at the back look like they were from the colonial era.
A building in the middle of a large pond. There is no bridge to it. I wonder who does the emperor keep there?
The Red Fort contains within it three Museums. One containing textiles and artifacts from the Mughal era,
an Independence Museum, and a War Museum -- the Indian
Army has a long history of stationing a garrison at the Red Fort.
Although the compound is huge and took us about two hours to fully appreciate, I find it somewhat
small and the inner buildings mostly unimpressive for the large size of the Mughal Empire.
Perhaps the magnificence of the palace lies in the long gone decorations and details instead
of sheer size. Having seen our fill, we decided to postpone lunch
and take a short walk to the Jama Masjid -- the largest Mosque in India built by the Mughals.
We did not dare to eat anything in the
filthy Old Delhi area, where everyone pisses by the road and
the homeless sleep in the middle of the road on the dividers, seemingly to avoid piss.
View the next related post here.
Return to the trip index here.
View the next related post here.
Return to the trip index here.
1 comment:
GOOD
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