53 Fun Facts About Delhi

Which river does Delhi straddle, though the city spreads mainly west of it?

The Yamuna runs only about 22 km through Delhi, under 2% of its length, yet that short stretch accounts for most of the river's pollution.

Which three Delhi monuments are UNESCO World Heritage Sites?

Qutb Minar, Humayun's Tomb and Red Fort all date from Delhi's sultans and Mughal emperors; the fort joined the list only in 2007, four years after soldiers finally moved out of it.

Which legendary city of the Mahabharata is traditionally placed on the site of Delhi?

Indraprastha, the Pandavas' capital, is traditionally placed beneath one of Delhi's old riverside forts; digs there found Painted Grey Ware pottery but no remains of an ancient city.

Which national holiday brings a military parade past India Gate each January?

Republic Day, 26 January, marks the date India's constitution took effect in 1950; the parade has been held every year since, moving early on from a stadium to the grand avenue.

Which Rajput king's defeat by Muhammad Ghori at Tarain in 1192 opened Delhi to conquest?

Prithviraj Chauhan had beaten Ghori on the same field a year earlier; in 1192 Ghori came back with mounted archers, won, and had him executed, leaving northern India open to his generals.

Who founded the Delhi Sultanate in 1206?

Qutb-ud-din Aibak was sold into slavery as a child and rose to be Muhammad Ghori's general; when Ghori was assassinated in 1206 he took power, founding what became the 'Slave' dynasty.

What disaster struck the Qutb Minar's stairway when its lights failed in 1981?

A stampede killed 45 people when the lights went out on the crowded stair; the public has not been allowed to climb the 72.5-metre tower since.

What struck the Qutb Minar in the 14th century, wrecking its top storey?

Lightning damaged the top storey, so the sultan of the day replaced it and added another, facing the new work in white marble that still sets the summit apart.

Which Gupta emperor is generally credited with the rust-resistant iron pillar now standing in Delhi's Qutb complex?

Chandragupta II is generally identified as the 'King Chandra' its Sanskrit inscription honours; the pillar is thought to have first stood elsewhere, as a standard of the god Vishnu, before it reached Delhi.

Who was the only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate, a daughter of Sultan Iltutmish?

Razia is said to have been her father's choice as heir, but the nobles crowned her half-brother; within months he was deposed and she took the throne, ruling until 1240.

Which sultan moved his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, then had to move it back?

Muhammad bin Tughluq wanted a capital nearer the middle of his empire, so in 1327 he ordered Delhi's court south to Daulatabad; many died on the march, and the move was later undone.

Which conqueror sacked Delhi in 1398, leaving the city in ruins?

Timur's army sacked Delhi in December 1398 and left it so ruined that, a chronicler wrote, not a bird moved a wing there for two months; the sultanate never recovered its power.

Who founded the Mughal Empire after beating the last Lodi sultan at Panipat in 1526?

Babur faced a much larger army at Panipat but brought cannon and firearms, among the first seen on an Indian battlefield; the sultan was killed, and Mughal rule began.

Which Hindu general seized Delhi in 1556 and had himself crowned, only to fall weeks later at the Second Battle of Panipat?

Hemu, who began as a saltpetre trader, was struck by an arrow at Panipat; seeing him fall, his army panicked and fled, and the young Akbar's throne was safe.

Who commissioned Humayun's Tomb, the first garden-tomb on the subcontinent?

Bega Begum, his widow, began the tomb about nine years after his death; its domed mausoleum in a four-part garden set the pattern that led to the Taj Mahal.

Shah Jahan built Shahjahanabad, today's Old Delhi, to replace which city as the Mughal capital?

Agra lost the court once Shah Jahan's new walled city was ready, and that city stayed the Mughal capital until the British ended the dynasty in 1857.

Above which Red Fort gate did Nehru raise the flag in August 1947?

Nehru hoisted the tricolour above the Lahori Gate, the Red Fort's main entrance facing Chandni Chowk, and prime ministers have raised it there on every Independence Day since.

Which mosque, built by Shah Jahan by 1656, is described as India's largest?

The Jama Masjid was Shah Jahan's last great building: two years after it was finished, his son Aurangzeb deposed and imprisoned him.

What does the name of the Old Delhi market Chandni Chowk mean?

Moonlight Square is said to be named for the moon's reflection in the water that once ran through it, a canal and pool later covered over under British rule.

Which daughter of Shah Jahan, first lady of his court after Mumtaz Mahal died, laid out Chandni Chowk?

Jahanara was just 17 when she became first lady, ranking above her father's surviving wives; after he was deposed she stayed to care for him until he died.

Which invader looted Delhi in 1739 and carried off the Peacock Throne?

Nadir Shah carried so much plunder out of Delhi, the Peacock Throne and Koh-i-Noor diamond included, that he stopped collecting taxes in Persia for three years.

Which Maratha leader made a surprise raid on Delhi in 1737, beating a Mughal force outside the city?

Baji Rao I slipped past the main Mughal armies by a hill route and appeared outside Delhi, where he beat the force sent against him in March 1737.

Which power took control of Delhi and its Mughal emperor in 1803?

The East India Company's army beat a Maratha force outside Delhi in September 1803, and the blind emperor, until then in Maratha hands, became a pensioner of the Company.

From which city was the capital of British India transferred to Delhi in 1911?

Calcutta had become the centre of nationalist unrest after Bengal's 1905 partition, one reason the Raj moved; the change was announced at the Delhi Durbar of December 1911.

Which king-emperor was proclaimed in person at the 1911 Delhi Durbar?

George V was the only British monarch to attend a Delhi Durbar; because the Crown Jewels may not leave Britain, a new crown was made for the day and worn only once.

Which two British architects designed Rashtrapati Bhavan and much of New Delhi?

Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker began as old friends and ended in a public quarrel: the gradient of Baker's approach road hid Lutyens's palace from view as visitors drew near.

Where does the President of India's residence stand, at the head of the central vista?

Rashtrapati Bhavan stands on Raisina Hill; built as Viceroy's House, it became the Governor-General's residence at independence and the President's when India became a republic in 1950.

India Gate honours soldiers who died in which war?

World War I's dead are remembered by an arch with a shallow bowl on its summit, meant to be filled with burning oil on anniversaries, though the fire is rarely lit.

What was Rajpath renamed in September 2022?

Kartavya Path means Path of Duty; ministers said the change shed 'colonial baggage', since Rajpath was in effect a Hindi rendering of the British-era name Kingsway.

In 2022 the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame under India Gate was merged with the flame at which nearby site?

The National War Memorial, opened nearby in 2019, carries the names of independent India's war dead, which India Gate's walls do not; the old flame had burned since 1972.

Which curry did Delhi's Moti Mahal reputedly invent?

Butter chicken is said to have begun as a way to use up leftover tandoori chicken; in 2024 the founders' grandsons went to court over which grandfather invented it.

Which religion built the Lotus Temple?

The Baháʼí temple's architect, Fariborz Sahba, chose the lotus as a flower sacred across India's religions; people of any faith may pray inside.

What marks the spot of Gandhi's cremation at Raj Ghat?

A black marble platform and eternal flame mark the spot; so many leaders' memorials later filled the riverbank beside it that in 2013 the government ruled out any more separate ones.

Which sultan, founder of his dynasty, built the fortress-city of Tughlaqabad in 1321 as Delhi's third city?

Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq's fortress-city was abandoned within years of his death; legend blames the curse of a holy man whose stepwell he had tried to stop being built.

Which Rajput ruler built Delhi's Jantar Mantar observatory in the 1720s?

Sawai Jai Singh found the instruments of his day too small to measure accurately, so he built far larger ones here, then four more observatories in other cities.

Which 14th-century sultan had an Ashokan pillar hauled from Topra to crown his new capital in Delhi?

Firoz Shah Tughlaq had the pillar wrapped in reeds and raw hides, dragged to the river on a many-wheeled cart and floated to Delhi on a large boat.

Which 90-acre New Delhi park, popular for morning walks, surrounds the Bara Gumbad and several tombs some 500 years old?

Lodi Gardens is named for the Lodi sultans buried there; under the Raj it was called Lady Willingdon Park, after a viceroy's wife, and was renamed after independence.

Which engineer, nicknamed India's 'Metro Man', led the building of the Delhi Metro?

E. Sreedharan had already driven the Konkan Railway through the Western Ghats; he is credited with finishing both it and the Delhi Metro within budget and ahead of schedule.

What fuel did India's Supreme Court order Delhi's buses, taxis and autorickshaws to switch to in 1998?

Compressed natural gas became compulsory after a lawyer's public-interest case over Delhi's air reached the Supreme Court, which set an April 2001 deadline for the switch.

Which UN agency's 2014 air-quality data showed Delhi to be the world's most polluted city?

The WHO's database put Delhi's fine-particle pollution highest of the cities it covered; crop-stubble smoke, festival fireworks and still, cold air make the winters worst.

What was Delhi's main air hub called before it was renamed for Indira Gandhi in 1986?

Palam Airport began as a wartime RAF station; it took over Delhi's passenger flights in the 1960s, once traffic and the new jets had outgrown the older city airfield.

What is Delhi's main cricket ground, the Arun Jaitley Stadium, commonly known as?

The Kotla takes its nickname from the ruined 14th-century citadel next door; here in 1999 Anil Kumble took all ten Pakistan wickets in a single Test innings.

Which mountain range's northern extension forms the Delhi Ridge, the city's 'green lungs'?

The Aravalli hills end in the Delhi Ridge, which shields the city from the hot desert winds of Rajasthan; the range is far older than the Himalaya.

Which two classical Urdu poets both made their names in Mughal Delhi?

Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Ghalib bracket Mughal Delhi's fall: Mir left for Lucknow after repeated Afghan raids, and Ghalib wrote an eyewitness account of the 1857 revolt.

Which Chandni Chowk lane has been famous for its food stalls since the 1870s?

Gali Paranthe Wali, 'the lane of paratha makers', has served stuffed fried flatbreads since the 1870s; a few of its original family shops survive.

Which Sufi saint and poet-disciple, buried in one Delhi shrine, are linked with qawwali's birth?

Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrau died within months of each other in 1325; the poet, often called the father of qawwali, lies close to the master he adored.

Delhi is bordered on three sides by which Indian state?

Haryana wraps around Delhi on the north, west and south, so its cities Gurugram and Faridabad have grown into satellites of the capital.

Which Games were first held in Delhi in 1951?

The Asian Games were meant to start in 1950, but preparations ran late and Delhi opened them a year behind schedule, with 11 nations competing in a single stadium.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games opened in a Delhi stadium named after which Indian figure?

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium staged the ceremonies after a costly rebuild; less than two weeks before the opening, a new footbridge beside it collapsed and injured more than 20 workers.

Which IPL franchise, known as the Delhi Daredevils until 2018, has the Arun Jaitley Stadium as its home ground?

Delhi Capitals took the new name in December 2018 after finishing bottom of the table; two seasons later they reached their first IPL final.

Which Mughal emperor was tried at the Red Fort and exiled to Rangoon after 1857?

Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, was old and almost powerless when mutineers from Meerut pressed him to lead the 1857 revolt; he reluctantly agreed, and died in exile in Rangoon in 1862.

Which power stayed with India's central government when Delhi gained its own elected assembly in the 1990s?

Policing was held back, along with land and public order, when the 69th Amendment created the National Capital Territory, so the Delhi Police report to India's home ministry and not to the city's chief minister.

Besides Hindi, which two languages are additional official languages of Delhi?

Urdu and Punjabi are Delhi's additional official languages: Urdu literature flowered in the old Mughal capital, and Punjabi arrived with the half a million refugees who resettled the city after Partition.