Rashtrapati Bhavan
The world's largest official residence by floor area — outranking even Brunei's Istana Nurul Iman — stands at the end of Rajpath.
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Designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker in a Delhi Order that fused Indo-Saracenic architecture with colonial ambition, it took 17 years to build (1912–1929). The building moved through three identities — Viceroy's House, Government House, then the Indian President's residence — tracking the entire arc of British rule to republic. The numbers are hard to absorb: 340 rooms, corridors totaling 2.5 km, set within a 320-acre estate.
What to look for
- The Indo-Saracenic detailing across the H-shaped facade — Lutyens and Baker's attempt to merge colonial and South Asian architectural forms into a single 'Delhi Order'
- The scale of the estate from Rajpath: 320 acres of grounds, gardens, staff residences, and outbuildings radiating behind the main block
- The building's position on Raisina Hill at the western terminus of Rajpath, the relationship between site and ceremonial boulevard deliberate from the start
The exterior and estate are visible from Rajpath on Raisina Hill in New Delhi; the source does not detail public access or visiting hours.
Rashtrapati Bhavan 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.