Delhi offers plenty to the tourist as well as to the resident. We present below some of the information which will come in handy for you. Please do note some of the links below connect to external sites, and we are just referencing to them.
Orientation & Maps
| Getting Around | History | Places of Interest | Shopping & Entertainment
| Experiences | Eat & Drink
Orientation
Delhi (Hindi: दिल्ली, Urdu: دلّی, Punjabi: ਦਿੱਲੀ), and New Delhi together constitute the largest city in Northern India and together form the capital of the nation. The city rests at 239m above sea level, and encompasses about 1500 sq. kms.
Delhi, topographically, is more or less flat with the
starting of the Aravallis in the west in the form of Delhi
ridge. Delhi is usually referred to in terms of the seven
regions (as in the map on the left), but politically, there
are nine districts. The river Yamuna slices away the eastern
parts of the city and the upcoming satellite towns of Noida,
Ghaziabad and Sahibabad. Towards the south are Gurgaon and
Faridabad, the other two major satellite towns.
Delhi Map (on google) - Will open a new window.
- Airport - Indira Gandhi International Airport is located in the south-western parts of the city. The terminals are:
- 1A - departure only - used by Air India, Go Air, MDLR Airlines and Jagson Airlines
- 1C - All domestic arrivals
- 1D - departure only- used by all other domestic airlines
- 2 - International departure and arrival
- Pre-paid taxis, buses to the city centre and other modes of transport are available at all arrival points.
- Bus Stations
- Railway Stations
Getting Around
Delhi is a large city with multiple modes of transport from human-pedalled rickshaws, buses, auto-rickshaws, taxis, various forms of hired cars and the new metro.
- Metro: The Delhi Metro has three lines Red (Dilshad Garden - Kashmere Gate - Rithala), Yellow (Jehangirpuri, Connaught Place - Central Secretariat) and Blue (Noida - Connaught Place - Dwarka), with more lines expected to open up in 2010 and 2011.
- Train: Indian Railways runs a ring railway service around the city, which you can use. However, this ring railway does not connect to other modes of transport too well.
- Bus: Delhi Transport Corporation runs the largest fleet of environment friendly CNG (compressed natural gas) run buses in the word. Some of these buses are their own, and the rest are contracted in and operated by private companies. The bus network is extensive, and a ride is cheap.
- Taxi and car rental: The standard taxi in Delhi is a
black colored car with a yellow top. Traditionally, these
used to be Ambassador cars which would run by the meter.
These taxis can be hailed on the street, or called from taxi
stands present in all neighbourhoods. By law, all these
taxis run on CNG. There are
prepaid taxi stands in certain places in the city.
Now, besides the regular metered taxis (still black and yellow), there are cabs that you can call in and are run by many operators including Radio Taxi (phone 1929), Meru (Ph 4422 4422), Easy Cabs (Ph 43434343), Delhi Cabs (4433 3222) among others.
Besides these, there are many other car rental agencies in the company including the international chains (Aviz, Hertz, Budget, Thrifty, Sixt etc).
- Autorickshaws: These three wheeled vehicles are good and cheap for short trips. They are all green and yellow in livery. The green again stands for the fact they run on CNG. These are metered too, and will take in three passengers on the bench seat at the rear. If the driver tries to negotiate a fare with you, instead of using the meter, please insist on using the meter. If that does not work, locate the nearby police post, or the beat constable. The police will sort this for you quickly. In certain places in the city, there are pre-paid autorickshaw stands.
- Cycle rickshaws: These are human-pedalled three-wheeled rickshaws which you will see in various parts of the city. There are no meteres, so you will have to negotiate a price before you get on. These are great for short distances and great to use in Old Delhi in the bylanes.
There are one way tickets, smart cards and tourist cards available at the ticket counters. The Metro can prove to be a good ally for you to visit the tourist spots in the city, to reach main railway stations and also to reach the airport (operational later in 2010). Below is a stylized version of the metro route map, which you can click on to see a larger version (opens new window - image courtesy wikitravel).
Delhi Metro Rail Route MapHistory
(All content in the history section is part of a wikitravel article which was written originally by delhigate.com and is thus reproduced below without change) Delhi is said to be one of the oldest existing cities in the world, along with Damascus and Varanasi. Legend estimates it to be over 5,000 years old. Over the millennia, Delhi is said to have been built and destroyed 11 times. The oldest alleged incarnation of the city shows up in the Indian mythological epic Mahabharata as Indraprastha.
- Qila Rai Pithora – This dates back to the 10th century A.D. as per available historical records. Also known as Rai Pithora, this city was the capital during the reign of Prithviraj Chauhan, the local hero famous for his first defeating, before finally losing to, the marauding invaders from central Asia (Muhammad Ghori in particular). Chauhan's ancestors are said to have captured the city from the Tomar Rajputs who were credited with founding Delhi. Anangpal, a Tomar ruler possibly created the first known regular fort here called 'Lal Kot', which was taken over by Prithviraj and the city extended. Some of the ruins of the fort ramparts are still visible around Qutab Minar and Mehrauli
- Mehrauli – Muhammad Ghori managed to defeat Prithviraj Chauhan in battle in 1192. Ghori left his slave Qutub-ud-din Aibak as his viceroy, who in turn captured Delhi the subsequent year. After Ghori's death in 1206, Aibak proclaimed himself the ruler of Delhi and founded the slave dynasty. Qutub-ud-din contributed significantly in terms of architecture by getting Mehrauli built. His most prominent contribution is the starting of Qutab Minar. This 72.5 m tall tower was built across three generations and finally completed in 1220AD. The Slave dynasty ruled until 1290, among them was Razia Sultana who ruled for just three years, but became a historic figure for being the first empress in India.
- Siri - Qutub-ud-din Aibaq's 'Slave Dynasty' was followed by the line of Khilji (or Khalji) rulers. The most prominent among the six rulers was Allauddin who extended the kingdom to the south of Narmada and also established the city of 'Siri'. Among some of the remaining ruins, is part of the Siri Fort in the greater Hauz Khas area. The madrasa at Hauz Khas was constructed during Allauddin's reign and bears the stamp of West Asian architecture. Hauz Khas is more often visited today for the chic boutiques and restaurants.
- Tughlakabad - Exactly as it happens during the fall of a lineage of kings, after the Khilji's there was administrative chaos for sometime as the last Khilji ruler was slain by Nasruddin Mohammed. Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq (a Turk governor) invaded Delhi in the 1320s, started the Tughlaq dynasty, and founded the city of Tughlakabad. The ruins of the large fort still remain. His descendent Muhammad Bin Tughlaq raised the fort walls, created another city called Jahapanah (which enclosed the area between Siri and Qila Rai Pithora). Tughlakabad continued, however, to be the main capital city. Muhammad Bin Tughlaq is also known as the mad king for wanting to move the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (now near Aurangabad in Maharashtra) and making the entire population travel, only to return in a few years because of water shortage in the new town.
- Firozabad - Muhammad Bin Tughlaq's son, Firoze created the next city which was called Firozabad or Firoze Shah Kotla. There still are some ruins which are visible around the cricket stadium by the same name. The city enclosed a large area, and contained many palaces, mosques, pillared halls, and a multi-floored water tank. Firoze Shah also planted a 1500 year old Ashokan Pillar on top of the palace. Feroze Shah, also repaired many of the older constructions in Delhi including Ghori's tomb, Qutab Minar, Suraj Kund and Hauz Khas. He, himself, was buried inside a lofty tomb in Hauz Khas. Quite like earlier, after Feroze Shah's death, the sultnate became unstable and weak, and was invaded by Taimur the Lame (from Samarkhand) who created havoc in the city by looting, killing, raping and plundering. The Sayyids and Lodhis who ruled Delhi after the Tughlaq's paid more attention to re-establishing military and political stability to the kingdom. The only relevant architecture visible from this period are the tombs at Lodhi Gardens. The last of the Lodhi's was defeated by Babur in the first battle of Panipat. Babur then proceeded to establish the Mughal dynasty.
- Shergarh - Babur's son Humayun ruled the kingdom for a few years only to be defeated by Sher Shah Suri (1540), who established the new city Shergarh (on the ruins of Dinpanah, built by Humayun) towards the north and near the river. Shergarh is what you see at Purana Qila today, near the Delhi zoo. After Humayun came back to power, he completed the construction and proceeded to rule from Shergarh.
- Shahjehabanad - the next of the Mughal emperors chose to move away from Delhi and established Agra as the capital of their kingdom. Shahjehan (Humayun's great-grandson) returned to Delhi and established Shahjehanabad. This included the Jama Masjid, the Red Fort and all that in enclosed within the walls of Old Delhi. This wall is still around in many parts and three of the six gates (Delhi gate, Lahori Gate, Turkman Gate, Ajmeri Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Mori Gate)to Delhi still exist. Kashmiri Gate was reconstructed and widened by the British after the 1857 revolt.
- Lutyen's New Delhi - The final city as you see today expanded from what Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Places of Interest
Red Fort
|
Humayun's Tomb |
Qutab Minar Complex |
Temples, Mosques
(Jama Masjid, Baha'i Lotus Temple, Gurdwaras, Cathedrals
etc) | Other Significant Monuments
(India Gate, Parliament House, Raj Ghat, Rashtrapati Bhawan
etc)|
Museums
All the links above direct to the wikitravel website and will open new pages.
Shopping & Entertainment
Delhi is quite shoppers paradise, with all types of touristy kitsch or high quality handicrafts available. You will find the usuals of extremeley large variety of apparel (and high fashion), designerware, handicrafts, accessories to books. Delhi will also provide you the opportunity to stroll through traditional bazaars and ancient spice markets. You can visit the links below (on wikitravel) for names of the markets and bazaars, and in many cases particular stores that you would want to go to.
Experiences;
You should see the places of interest (as above) anyways. But there are some other things which are essential to Delhi (traditionally, or otherwise) which you would want experience. Our recommendations are:
- Sound and Light Show at Red Fort
- Spice Market at Fatehpuri - large wholesale spice market at the end of Chandni Chow
- Chandni Chowk Stroll - start near Red fort and walk all the way up to the Fatehpuri Mosque. And eat your way through!
- Dinner at Karim's - near Jama Masjid. Old restaurant serving authentic Mughlai food, and owned by chefs from the royal kitchens of the Mughal Dynasty
- Tibetan Settlement - besides the people, this is a quick glimpse of Tibetan culture and taste of food.
- DLF Emporia near Vasant Kunj - just in case you wanted a new pair of Ferragamo, or wanted another Louis Vuitton.
- Export Surplus market at Sarojini Nagar - find brand name apparel at throw away prices
- Nizam's near Plaza cinema at Connaught Place - eat the finest Kebab roll's in the city
Eat & Drink
Delhi presents a wide variety of options for a snack, a drink, a night out, dining out in various budget options from really cheap to an expansive international standard splurge.
