Delhiदिल्ली

Delhi has been a capital on and off for around a thousand years, and it has moved its centre several times. The early Rajput fort at Lal Kot, in today's Mehrauli, fell to Muslim armies at the end of the 12th century. Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a general who became the first sultan, began the Qutub Minar around 1199 beside the first mosque of the new rulers. Over the next three centuries the Delhi Sultanate raised a succession of cities within a few kilometres of each other: Siri, Tughlaqabad, Jahanpanah, Firozabad. Their ruins are why the modern city is dotted with tombs and walls.

The Mughal era began in 1526 when Babur defeated the last sultan at Panipat. His son Humayun lost the throne, fled, and returned to die after a fall on the stairs of his library in 1556. His widow, Hamida Banu Begum, commissioned the tomb that now stands near Nizamuddin, completed around 1572. Akbar moved the court to Agra, and Delhi lost rank until Shah Jahan decided in 1638 to build a new capital on the Yamuna. Shahjahanabad, with the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid, was finished by 1648 and is what visitors now call Old Delhi. Its main street, Chandni Chowk, ran from the fort's Lahori Gate to Fatehpuri Masjid.

The Mughals faded through the 18th century. In 1739 the Persian ruler Nader Shah sacked the city and carried off the Peacock Throne, and by the early 1800s the emperor ruled little beyond the fort. The Uprising of 1857 began at Meerut and reached Delhi within a day; after months of fighting the British retook the city, exiled the last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, to Burma, and razed parts of Shahjahanabad.

In 1911 the British announced that the capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi. Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker designed New Delhi on a new site south of Shahjahanabad, and it was inaugurated in 1931. Sixteen years later, independence in 1947 brought Partition: Delhi lost much of its Muslim population and received hundreds of thousands of refugees from Punjab and Sindh, who changed the city's food, language and business life.

Since the 1950s Delhi has grown from a few million to more than 30 million in the wider urban area. The National Capital Region now includes Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. The metro, opened from 2002, is the most visible sign that the city has tried to keep pace.

Old Delhi is the walled city of Shahjahanabad, and its lanes still follow the trades. Chandni Chowk, the moonlit square that gave the main road its name, was the parade ground and market in front of the Red Fort. Dariba Kalan, off the main road, is the silver and attar lane. Khari Baoli, further west, is the wholesale spice and dried-fruit market. Chawri Bazaar sold brass, copper and paper. Each lane has a few gates, courtyard houses (havelis) and a mosque or temple at the end.

Connaught Place, named for a British royal, was planned in the 1920s as a circular colonnaded market for the new capital. Two rings of white arcades and seven radial roads made it the shopping and business centre of the young capital, and it is now a metro hub. Its official name is Rajiv Chowk, and both names are in use.

Lutyens' Delhi is the broad-avenued zone around Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate and the government offices. Bungalows on large plots line quiet tree-lined roads, and much of the city's political life happens behind their walls. Nearby Lodhi Garden holds 15th- and 16th-century tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties in a public park.

Nizamuddin and Humayun's Tomb are a different Delhi. The Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya died in 1325 and his dargah has drawn pilgrims ever since. Beside it lies the tomb of the poet Amir Khusrau. The lane leading to the shrine is narrow, packed with stalls selling flowers, sweets and kebabs, and at Thursday dusk the qawwali singers begin. A short walk away, Sunder Nursery turned a nursery and a set of Mughal-era tombs into a public garden.

The south holds the oldest layer and the newest. Mehrauli has the Qutub Minar and stepwells, and Hauz Khas has a 14th-century reservoir and a madrasa above a hip village of cafes. Further out, Gurugram and Noida show a newer Delhi of glass towers and malls. Old Delhi, New Delhi and the south are different worlds, joined by the metro.

Delhi's buildings read like a textbook of Indo-Islamic architecture. The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and the Qutub Minar, begun around 1200, reuse carved stone from earlier Hindu and Jain temples, and the Iron Pillar in the courtyard is older still, dating from the Gupta period. The Tughlaq dynasty built with rough grey stone and sloping walls, as at Tughlaqabad, which reads as fortress rather than palace.

The Mughals brought a refined red sandstone and white marble style, and the finest early example is Humayun's Tomb. It set out the plan later used at the Taj Mahal: a raised platform, a double dome, and a square garden divided into four parts by water channels (char bagh). The tomb is a good place to see how the garden and the monument are one design.

Shah Jahan's Red Fort is a palace complex on a large scale: the Lahori Gate, the Naqqar Khana, the Diwan-i-Am for public audiences and the Diwan-i-Khas for private ones, with a marble canal system that once carried water through the pavilions. The Jama Masjid, finished in the 1650s, holds tens of thousands in its courtyard and rises over the walled city from a high platform.

Jantar Mantar, built in 1724 by Jai Singh II, is an outdoor observatory of large stone instruments for tracking the sun, the moon and the stars. It is one of five observatories he built across northern India.

British New Delhi is a different language: classical columns, Mughal-style domes, and Rajasthani jali screens in the same building. India Gate, a memorial arch for Indian soldiers of the First World War, sits on the long axis that runs to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Connaught Place borrowed the Georgian crescent. After independence, modernist architects added buildings such as the Lotus Temple, and newer glass towers rise in Gurugram.

A good way to see this is to pair sites: the Qutub complex with the Red Fort for the Sultanate and Mughal poles, Humayun's Tomb with Sunder Nursery for the garden, and India Gate with Connaught Place for the colonial city.

Delhi's food is the sum of its rulers and its refugees. The Mughal kitchens gave Old Delhi its slow-cooked meats, kebabs, biryani and breads such as rumali roti. Karim's, behind the Jama Masjid, was founded in 1913 by a family that claims descent from royal cooks, and it still serves korma, burra kebab and nihari, a slow stew once eaten as a workers' breakfast.

Paranthe Wali Gali is a lane of shops that has fried stuffed flatbreads for generations, and it shows another Delhi: vegetarian, fried in ghee or oil, with potato, paneer or radish inside. Nearby Dariba Kalan sells jalebi, spirals of batter fried in ghee and soaked in syrup, and Chawri Bazaar is known for kulfi and cold sweets.

Partition in 1947 changed the map. Punjabi refugees opened dhabas and tandoor kitchens, and butter chicken and dal makhani spread from those kitchens to the rest of India. Chole bhature, stuffed kulchas and lassi in steel glasses belong to the same wave. Old Delhi itself has kept its old dishes.

Street food has a season. Winter brings gajar halwa, a carrot pudding cooked in milk and ghee, and hot jalebi. Summer brings sugarcane juice, kulfi and falooda. Chaat, the fried snacks and yoghurt plates of stalls such as Natraj Dahi Bhalla, is the year-round staple, and each stall has its own dahi and tamarind.

Tibetan refugees added momos, and southern migrants added dosas and idli, so Saravana Bhavan and its rivals feed a large vegetarian crowd. Modern Delhi also has an ambitious restaurant scene in hotels and in areas such as Lodhi Road and Aerocity.

For visitors, three rules help: eat at busy stalls where food is cooked in front of you, start with one small plate if your stomach is new to the city, and use sealed or filtered water.

Delhi is one of the few places where a mosque, a Sikh temple, a Hindu temple and a church can share a single road. Chandni Chowk has the Sis Ganj Gurdwara, the Digambar Jain temple, the Gauri Shankar temple, the Central Baptist Church and the Fatehpuri Masjid within a stroll of each other, and the Jama Masjid is a short way south.

The Jama Masjid is the great mosque of Old Delhi. Visitors enter barefoot, dressed covered, outside prayer times, and the courtyard opens onto a view of the Red Fort and the city. Fridays and Eid bring the largest crowds.

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, near Connaught Place, is one of the most visited Sikh shrines in the city. It commemorates the eighth Sikh guru, Har Krishan, and its pond and gold dome draw pilgrims all day. The langar, a free vegetarian community kitchen, feeds thousands daily, and visitors of any faith are welcome to eat if they cover their head and take off their shoes.

Nizamuddin Dargah is the shrine of a Sufi saint and a place of qawwali. The sung poetry of Amir Khusrau, who is buried there, is still performed most Thursdays after sunset, and the lane fills with people of many faiths. Behave as a guest: cover up, keep your voice down and ask before photographing anyone.

The Lotus Temple, opened in 1986, is a Bahá'í house of worship shaped like a lotus, open to all, with quiet visiting rules. Akshardham, opened in 2005, is a large modern Hindu temple complex with strict rules on phones and bags.

A practical note: shoes come off at most religious sites, and carrying them in a bag saves a search at the shoe stall. Covered shoulders and knees, a scarf and small change for the deposit make each visit smoother.

Delhi's year is marked by festivals that follow both the solar and lunar calendars, and the city celebrates them loudly. Republic Day on 26 January is a national parade along Kartavya Path with military marches and tableaux; road closures start days before. Independence Day on 15 August brings the Prime Minister's speech from the Red Fort and kites over every rooftop.

Holi, the festival of colours, falls around the March full moon. Streets fill with coloured powder and water; wear old clothes or stay indoors. Dussehra in autumn ends with tall effigies burned in the evening at grounds across the city, and Diwali, the festival of lights, follows around three weeks later with lamps, sweets and fireworks. Diwali is also the season when air quality drops sharply, so the celebration has become a public debate about smoke and fireworks.

Eid, after Ramadan, and Muharram bring crowds to the Jama Masjid and Nizamuddin, and Old Delhi lanes serve special sweets and meats. Guru Nanak Jayanti, in November, fills gurdwaras such as Bangla Sahib with processions and free meals. Christmas draws crowds to the Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Smaller events matter for travellers too. The Qutub Festival, an evening of music and dance among the ruins, has run in some winters (check). Delhi's literature and arts events cluster in the cooler months, and the flower and craft fairs of spring pull crowds to Dilli Haat.

Planning notes: many festivals move by lunar date, so check the year's date before you build a trip around one. Hotels raise rates around Diwali, Republic Day and New Year, and some roads and sights close for security. Alcohol shops close on dry days. If you arrive in the week before Diwali, expect crowded markets, sweet shops with long queues and heavy evening traffic; if you arrive the week after, expect smoke and a few lost days for outdoor sights. Mid-February to mid-March is calmer and clearer, with mild days and few closures.

Delhi wakes early. By 05:30 the parks fill with walkers, and Lodhi Garden is at its busiest for joggers and yoga groups before the heat. Old Delhi's kitchens start frying before sunrise, and by 08:00 the lanes carry porters, rickshaws and school children.

The metro is the city's daily backbone. Since the first line opened in 2002 it has grown to more than 300 kilometres, connecting Old Delhi, Connaught Place, the airport and the NCR towns. It is air-conditioned, cheap and clean, and its women-only coaches and lifts make it the easiest way to cross the city. Autos, app cars and buses fill the gaps.

Heat and air shape the day. From April to June midday is a time for indoors; from late October to January the air is often the story, and residents watch the air-quality index the way others watch the weather. Winter fog can delay trains and flights for hours. Monsoon storms flood underpasses in minutes.

Markets are a social life as well as shopping. Sarojini Nagar and Lajpat Nagar sell cheap clothes, Khan Market sells books and coffee, and Dilli Haat gathers crafts from every state. Bargaining is normal in street markets, while fixed prices apply in shops with tags.

Language is layered: Hindi and English are used everywhere, Punjabi and Urdu are common, and Old Delhi speaks a Hindustani that leans on Urdu. Delhi also holds the country's largest concentration of central-government offices, embassies and universities, so conversations can turn to politics, exams or cricket.

For a visitor, three habits help: start early, plan rest hours in the heat, and use the metro for long hops. The city rewards patience, small change and a willingness to ask. Carry a scarf, a bottle of water, hand gel and a small notebook with your hotel address in English and Hindi, and you will handle most days without trouble. Locals are usually glad to help with directions, and an offer of advice from a shopkeeper is normal, though it is fine to say no thank you and walk on.