INDIA, DELHI: HUMAYUN'S TOMB

 December 22, 2024

After church we got on the road for a city tour of New Delhi. I can't say this enough, but the traffic is CRAZY in the city. There is no respect for lanes, and there is lots of honking. Tourists should not drive.

Our first stop was Humayun's Tomb, built for the Mughal emperor Mirza Nasir al-Din Muhammad (aka "Humayun," and I have no idea how the names relate to each other) by his first wife and chief consort, Empress Bega Begum and with the patronage of Humayun's son, the great Emperor Akbar, in the 1570s. The Empress was so devastated by her husband's death that she dedicated the remainder of her life to the construction of the most magnificent mausoleum up to that time in the Empire. It was the first monumental Islamic mausoleum in India as well as the first garden tomb, and it greatly influenced that design of the Taj Mahal 80 years later.

The tomb and surrounding property was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, which enabled it to undergo extensive restoration. It didn't take long for us to discover what an excellent guide we had. His name was Sajeet, and Bob found him online. I wish I had more info to share because he was one of the best guides we have ever had. 

The tomb complex has an impressive 67-acre footprint and includes over 100 tombs in addition to Humayan's Tomb, as well as several ponds and  gardens.

It was pretty busy the day we were there.

The Arab Sarai Gateway (front and back), built in 1560-1561.

There are two 52-feet-tall gates to the Humayun Tomb area. Note the six-sided stars we usually associate with Judaism on the door frame. Sajeet told us that they are two superimposed triangles representing man and woman used by the Mughals centuries before the Jewish use of the symbol.

We walked through the gate . . .

. . . and into what looked like a setting for an Arabian Nights movie:

The tomb is constructed of red sandstone and white marble and is square in shape but with the corners lopped off to make it appear somewhat octagonal. The artchitecture and engineering involved in the building's construction are mind-blowing, at least to me. It is definitely comparable to the great cathedrals in Europe, and it pre-dates most of them.

An information board on-site shows a cut-away view of the mausoleum:

The center room includes the cenotaphs (or stone markers) for the tombs of Emperor Humayun and the Empress Bega Begum. The actual burial chamber is in an underground room directly below this one and generally closed to the public.

There is yet another beautiful domed ceiling over the cenotaphs, and the "tomb room" is surrounded by other smaller rooms connected by doorways that give the impression of infinite openings.

As always, a beautiful floor:

 

Over the wall, we could see another mausoleum that we would visit next.

The grounds surrounding Humayun's Tomb have a sophisticated pool and drainage system:

We all wondered why we had never heard of Huyaman's Tomb before. It is stunning. 

Here is a different view of the mausoleum (from a photo on an information board on-site) that gives a better feel for its size and architectural features:

Even the trees on the property feel exotic.

The scope of the compound is mind-boggling. Humayun's Tomb is the symbolic (but not literal) centerpiece, but there are several other dazzling structures.

The Isa Kahn Mausoleum is the next most important structure in the complex and can be seen at the center of the photo above. This mausoleum is truly octagonal in shape and, like Humayun's Tomb, is built mainly of red sandstone but with ornamentation in gray quartzite rather than marble. It pre-dates Humayun's Tomb by about 20 years.

It has just one central chamber surrounded by eight verandahs.

This is the central dome in its entirety and a close-up shot of the medallion:

An inner octagonal wall encloses six tombs, two large and four smaller. The largest tomb is that of Isa Khan Niazi, an influential noble in the court of Sher Shan Suri (and who he is I have no idea). Isa Khan must have been very well-liked to have been given eternal digs like this. I don't know who the other tombs are for--perhaps his wife/wives and/or children?

The Humayun Tomb Complex was the first of the Mughal structures we saw on our trip, and each one was more fantastic than the last. I don't know why the Taj Mahal is the only one we ever hear about or see.