Old Delhi Spiritual Sites & Temples: Private 6-Hour Tour

The walled city, which is where Delhi actually is

New Delhi is avenues and roundabouts. Old Delhi is Shah Jahan's capital of 1648, three metres wide in places, still trading, and the six hours here are worth more than a day of monuments.

Jama Masjid

India's grandest mosque, finished in 1656 — red sandstone and white marble, with a courtyard that holds twenty-five thousand people and minarets you can climb for the best view of the old city there is.

Shoulders and knees covered; robes are lent at the gate for a small charge, and women should carry a scarf. It closes to visitors during prayer times, so the day is ordered around them.

Chandni Chowk by tuk-tuk

The only sensible way to travel that street. Shah Jahan's daughter Jahanara laid it out in the 1650s as a boulevard with a canal running down its centre, reflecting moonlight — hence the name. The canal is long gone; the commerce is not.

It is still organised trade by trade: Dariba Kalan for silver, Kinari Bazaar for wedding trim and zari, and Khari Baoli — the largest spice market in Asia, where the dried chilli will make you cough and the traders will find that funny.

The temples and shrines

What makes this route unusual is how many faiths sit within a few hundred metres: the Jain temple at the top of Chandni Chowk with its bird hospital, where injured city birds are treated free; Gauri Shankar, a Shiva temple over 800 years old; Sis Ganj Sahib, the gurudwara built where the ninth Sikh Guru was executed by Aurangzeb in 1675; and the Central Baptist Church of 1814 a few doors down.

Four religions on one street, which is the actual story of this city.

Raj Ghat

The black marble platform where Gandhi was cremated in 1948, with a flame that has burned since.

Practical

Six hours, private, with a good deal of walking on uneven lanes. Flat shoes, modest dress, and a scarf.

The Red Fort is closed on Mondays; your guide will reorder the day.