So where better to get Delhi belly than Delhi? Poor Leishia has been laid low with it and is only just recovering. Annoyingly we think it was a chicken roll she ate in a western style coffee shop!

On our first evening here the owner of the guesthouse we booked gave us a lovely cake for our wedding anniversary – how kind! Leishia didn’t eat much of it because of her tummy problems but I soldiered on and can proudly report that the whole cake is gone!

We haven’t seen as much of the city as we had hoped mostly because Leishia has been resting but we did see some of the more important sites.

First stop was the Red Fort which, given that it is a world heritage site, was a disappointment. True it is a very large fort with high red sandstone walls and huge gates but sadly once inside there isn’t much to impress and the whole place is in poor repair and untidy. That said we did see some interesting things. This is a water feature, they are quite common in Mughal architecture and when we build a house we plan to copy the idea! The water runs down the marble chute into a pool and then on to a series of cooling channels:

We also liked this:

and this:

Leishia is always the centre of attention in these attractions and wherever we visit people ask to have their picture taken with her, here is a typical example:

Sometimes it will be a school group and the photo-taking can last ten minutes and the proceedings be recorded on twenty or thirty phones and cameras!

Yesterday we took the metro to see Purana Qila (Old Fort). Purana Qila is a massive citadel and was built by either Humayun, the second Mughal emperor, in 1533 or Sher Shah Sur who captured Delhi from Humayun in 1540. The plaque at the entrance favours the former provenance, Wikipedia the latter.

Whoever built it the citadel is an imposing structure although now mostly in ruins. The walls are 4m thick and 20m high with a perimeter of almost 2km so a lot of stone!

 Internal view of the walls

  one of the gates

 the mosque

Even though it’s not clear who built Purana Qila what is known is that Humayun lost Delhi to Sher Shah in 1540. Sher Shah died in 1545 and was succeeded by his second son, Islam Shah, who spent most of his time putting down rebellions. Islam Shah himself died in 1553 and, taking advantage of the ensuing civil war among Islam’s successors, Humayun managed, in 1555, to recover his empire and Purana Qila with it.

Humayun established a library in Purana Qila and one day in 1556 fell when going down the stairs from it. He subsequently died from his injuries. Humayun is buried in a beautiful garden tomb less than 2km away from Purana Qila. The tomb was commissioned by his widow in 1565 and so predates the Taj Mahal.

The tomb is a Unesco world heritage site and is absolutely stunning:

Inside the tomb there is the central chamber:

and four side chambers. Each of the side chambers also contains tombs, we like to think they are all his friends!

Even more of his pals are buried outside:

The complex is huge and contains several other tombs, here is just one of them:

 Isa Khan Niyazi’s tomb (1547)

After seeing Humayun’s tomb we went to the Parliament building:

  you can’t get any further than the gates

 Government cars!

Having seen monkeys congregating at “Legal Central” in Agra we were highly amused to see monkeys around the Parliament area in Delhi:

Maybe the monkeys know something!

So finally we managed to get to probably the best sites in Delhi! Today we start driving north and west to reach Srinagar, not sure how long it will take, depends on the snow conditions but our plan is to be back from Srinagar and in Amritsar for Christmas Day at the Golden Temple!