Monday, December 04, 2006

Delhi Minaret (Part 3)

The most visited place by Delhi locals is this fortress/mosque and minaret ... which is the tallest minaret in Delhi. My guide told me that this is the tallest minaret in all of India.

This is inside the mosque (which is no longer used). It was originally an Hindu fortress and temple that was ransacked by the invading Moghuls. They destroyed the fort and temple and replaced it with this mosque.

The interesting thing is that they reused all of the stones from the original temple, so it is probably the only mosque (at least that I know of) where there are figures of people carved in the stones ... all the mosques that I'm familiar with only have script from the Koran and do not show any images of people at all.

There is also a story to this iron pillar. It is pure iron and centuries old. Yet there's not a lick of rust on it. My guide told me gleefully that this is the only piece of pure iron that is rustproof.

This is the mosque's archway - which faces west, toward Mecca.

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