Lotus Temple, Delhi: Timings, Entry and What It Is Actually For

The Lotus Temple is a Bahá'í House of Worship, completed in 1986 to a design by the Iranian-Canadian architect Fariborz Sahba. Twenty-seven free-standing marble petals are arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides, and the nine is not decorative: Bahá'í houses of worship are required to be nine-sided and to admit everyone.

The lotus was chosen because it is sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism alike and belongs to none of them exclusively, which is the whole point of the building. The marble is from Penteli in Greece, the same quarry the Parthenon came from.

It is one of the most visited buildings on earth, which is worth knowing before you picture a quiet afternoon.

Inside the prayer hall there is complete silence. Not lowered voices, silence, and the attendants enforce it politely and immediately.

No photography inside. Outside, in the gardens and of the building, is fine and is where the photograph you want is anyway.

No shoes. There is a free shoe deposit at the entrance and the queue for it is part of the hour you should budget.

There are no idols, no altar, no images and no sermons. There is also no ritual of any kind. People of any faith or none may enter and sit; readings from any scripture may be offered, but nothing is performed at you. If you arrive expecting a temple in the Hindu sense you will find the emptiness strange, and that emptiness is deliberate.

The building is closed on Mondays, which catches out a great many people combining it with the Red Fort, also closed on Mondays.

Early morning on a weekday is the only reliably short queue. Weekends and public holidays run long, sometimes very long, because this is a Delhi day out as much as a tourist site.

Late afternoon has the better light on the marble, at the cost of a bigger crowd. Sunset from the gardens is the photograph most people came for.

Kalkaji Mandir Metro on the Violet Line leaves you a short walk away. [Akshardham](/india/delhi/akshardham-temple) is the natural pairing if you want the other end of the same spectrum on the same day, though it needs three hours of its own and the two together make a full day rather than an afternoon.

Budget an hour here, not more. The building is a single idea, beautifully executed, and it does not take long to receive it.