Red Fort
The ramparts where Jawaharlal Nehru raised India's flag on 15 August 1947 still host that ceremony every Independence Day.
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Shah Jahan built this fort in 1639 to anchor his new capital, designed by Ustad Ahmad Lahori — the same architect behind the Taj Mahal — in a Persian-Indian fusion. Nadir Shah looted its artwork and jewels in 1739; British troops demolished its marble interiors after 1857. The defensive walls survived both, and the damage layers are as legible as the original architecture.
What to look for
- Lahori Gate, the main entrance and the exact spot of Nehru's 1947 flag-raising
- The red sandstone defensive walls — left largely intact even after the 1857 British demolitions removed the marble structures inside
- Evidence of the fort's original red-and-white coloring, which Shah Jahan's builders intended from the start
UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007; Lahori Gate is the main entrance and the historic ceremonial threshold.
Red Fort 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
- 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.
- Rashtrapati BhavanThe world's largest official residence by floor area — outranking even Brunei's Istana Nurul Iman — stands at the end of Rajpath.