Qutb Minar
Successive dynasties handed this tower off across 170 years — Aibak started it in 1199, Firuz Shah Tughlaq capped it with a cupola in 1368.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Delhi offline.
Built to announce the Ghurid conquest of Delhi, it is the physical record of Islamic rule taking root in South Asia. Its design broke from Middle Eastern mosque tradition, shaped visibly by local Indic building techniques and materials. UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the most visited heritage spots in the city.
What to look for
- Stalactite bracketing under each balcony — look up the fluted shaft at every stage to see it clearly
- Geometric patterns and inscriptions covering the surface, the same decorative language found on Afghanistan's Minaret of Jam built a decade earlier
- The cupola crowning the top, added by Firuz Shah Tughlaq in 1368 when he rebuilt the upper sections
399 steps inside the shaft; the complex is in Mehrauli, South Delhi.
Qutb Minar 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.
- 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.
- Rashtrapati BhavanThe world's largest official residence by floor area — outranking even Brunei's Istana Nurul Iman — stands at the end of Rajpath.