Fatehpuri Masjid
A Mughal empress built it in 1650; the British sold it at auction for Rs. 19,000 after 1857 — and it's still standing at the end of Chandni Chowk.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Delhi offline.
Delhi's second-largest mosque was commissioned by Fatehpuri Begum, a wife of Shah Jahan. After the 1857 war the British auctioned it off to a local merchant who preserved it; the government returned it to Muslims at the 1877 Delhi Durbar. Asia's largest spice market, Khari Baoli, grew up in the mosque's shadow after its construction.
What to look for
- The fluted red sandstone dome capped with mahapadma and kalash finials
- Seven-arched openings across the prayer hall facade, with the central iwan flanked by three arches on each side
- Twin minarets framing the entrance — look back from here for a straight line down Chandni Chowk toward the Red Fort
At the western terminus of Chandni Chowk, directly opposite the Red Fort — step outside and the entrance to Khari Baoli spice market is steps away.
Fatehpuri Masjid is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Delhi, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Delhi pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Delhi
- Red FortThe ramparts where Jawaharlal Nehru raised India's flag on 15 August 1947 still host that ceremony every Independence Day.
- Qutb MinarSuccessive dynasties handed this tower off across 170 years — Aibak started it in 1199, Firuz Shah Tughlaq capped it with a cupola in 1368.
- Humayun's TombThe red-sandstone ancestor of the Taj Mahal — commissioned by an empress, designed by Persian architects, and finished a century before Agra.
- Jama MasjidShah Jahan built his imperial mosque at the highest point of Shahjahanabad — the Mughal capital — and it was regarded as a symbolic gesture of Mughal power across India.
- Lotus TempleTwenty-seven marble petals, grouped in threes, fold into a single hall where any person of any faith walks in without condition.
- India GateAround 13,300 names carved in stone — soldiers lost across Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and the Afghan frontier.