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Not everthing was seen in the rain. All we had to do was wait a few minutes or drive a kilometer or two and the rain would disappear. We remember the unique thing about this monument was that it was completely covered with beautiful marble taken from another monument - the other left ugly and naked with no facade. Rajas, when it was their turn to rule, wanted monuments to impress but they didn't always want to pay top rupee for it. |
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| Thank goodness none of the Rajas ever saw what many of their monuments turned into after they departed. Otherwise they'd may not have bothered to build such great monuments. However, maybe they did since they believed in reincarnation, and were sad, much the way we are when we see what the follow on monarchs left behind. |  |
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The contrast of red sandstone next to the lush bright green Monsoon fed grass was omni present. The color combination will forever stick in our minds as uniqu to Northern Mogul India. |
| The carved out details on the red sandstone are very impressive. Below
their is a close-up of the detail. This shot shows how much of it there
was to do. Obviously, these monuments were very labour intensive and was
not done primarily with slave labour. It cost the Raja's lots of cash to
pay the artists to build their monuments.
Moguls are Muslims and much of what is written on the walls are prayers taken from the Koran - the Muslim equivalent of a christian's Bible. |
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Qutb-ud-din's Minar, tower was for centuries the tallest in the world. The iron pillar in front is from the 4th century. No one has been able to explain why it is still rust free. |
| This tower is still a unsolved puzzle. No one quite sure whether it is a watchtower or a minaret of a mosque. The minar is the product of several hands since it was constructed and re-constructed after it was damaged by an earthquake. |  |
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Throughout many of the monuments signs help us understand what it was we were viewing and learning about. |
| Like western architecture many of the monuments we saw in Dehli had suffered and the hands of conquerers and lack of care. |  |
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Indian's love to see their monuments and people watch.They especially like looking at foreigners who are so different. We'll, we were not different in that respect - we like to look at them too. |
| Lots of examples of Islamic architecture in India. Although predominantly
Hindu, now, most of the monuments of northern India, from yesteryear, are
Muslim.
The Alai-Darwaza are famous arches that are left form the gatehouse that make up the Qutb Minar Complex. |
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The Alai-Darwaza is a perfectly proportional structure that proved to be the seed of later architecture. Bishop Heber said of the total effect of this structure: "They built like giants, and finished like jewellers." |
| Carving red sandstone is fortunately for the artisans who worked on this carving much easier than working with other stone like marble. That and the ease of finding the stone in the region made it popuar with the Moguls for their monuments. |  |
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Because of the different wear of the red stand stone on this roof you can see how the panels come together to make up the bulbous dome roofing of these Mosques. |
more photos of other Indian things one sees siteseeing
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