Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Delhi is officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi making it both a city and a union territory serving as the political capital of India. The city has a population of over 11 million people. Evidence of a town or city on the current site date back to 300 BC. Through the Middle Ages the city was controlled by a succession of Turkic and Afghan dynasties followed by a series of concurring rulers through the 1700’s until the British colonized India in 1803. India eventually gained its independence in 1947 and has recently surpassed China as the most populace country in the world with over 1 billion inhabitants.

Today was our second day in Delhi and our guide, Prashant, had a full day of sightseeing planned for us. We enjoyed our included breakfast at the Hotel Eros and were ready to go when he arrived to pick us up bright and early. Our day began with a visit to a UNESCO world heritage site, Humayun’s Tomb. Humayun was a 16th century Mughal Emperor (the empire covered most of current day India) and was a Muslem. The tomb was commissioned by his first wife Empress Bega Begum in 1558. This was the first Persian style garden-tomb in India and was the precursor for the Taj Mahal. It took over seven years to build and 6,000 local men to build under the supervision of 500 experts/designers from Meca.

Next, we visited the Swaminarayan Akshardham Hindu Temple, Delhi’s largest temple, built in 2005, and is breathtakingly lavish. Artisans used ancient techniques to carve the pale red sandstone into elaborate relief, including 20,000 deities, saints and mythical creatures. The centerpiece is a three-meter-high gold statue of Bhagwan Shri Swaminarayan surrounded by more, fabulously intricate carvings. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside the temple, so we only have pictures from outside the temple.

From here we went into Old Delhi to visit the Jama Masjid Mosque, this immense structure is both the largest Muslem Mosque in India and is the final architectural extravagance of Shah Jahan with a courtyard capable of holding 25,000 devotees. The Mosque was built in the 1650’s there are three gates, one on the east which was for the royal family and the gates on the north and south were for the common men.

We left the Mosque via the north gate and entered the Old Delhi shopping bazaar where we boarded bicycle rickshaws for a tour through the bustling and colorful streets of the fabled shopping area.

Following a well-deserved and late lunch break we took a ride down Delhi’s embassy row past the Norwegian, USA, China, Russian and several other embassies on our way to The Birla House, a large mansion in central Delhi where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 140 days of his life and was assassinated on 30 January 1948 while walking to a small dais on the lawn behind the house to conduct an evening prayer meeting.

Our final stop of the day was at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 234 feet high Qutab Minar tower built in the 12th century as a Muslem victory tower on the grounds of what had been a Hindu Temple later converted to a Muslim Mosque.

Here a few of the other things we saw traveling around Delhi today.

Tomorrow, we leave Delhi and move on to Agra, India.