Places to Visit in Delhi: The 15 That Are Worth Your Time

Delhi is not one city and never has been. Seven capitals have been built on this stretch of the Yamuna, and what survives is scattered across forty kilometres rather than gathered into an old town you can walk. That is the single most useful thing to understand before you plan a day here: you do not stroll Delhi, you travel between its pieces.

Three of those pieces are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and they are the ones to protect in your schedule.

[Red Fort](/india/delhi/red-fort) is Shah Jahan's palace-fortress, built 1638 to 1648, the same emperor and the same decade of ambition that produced the Taj Mahal. Its red sandstone walls run 2.41 km and rise 33 metres. The Prime Minister still addresses the country from the Lahori Gate every 15 August. ₹600 foreign, ₹35 Indian, 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM, closed Mondays.

[Humayun's Tomb](/india/delhi/humayuns-tomb) is the one architects come for. Built in 1570, it is the first garden-tomb on the subcontinent, and the Taj Mahal is its descendant seventy-two years later: the same charbagh garden, the same double dome, the same red sandstone against white marble. Open sunrise to sunset, seven days.

[Qutub Minar](/india/delhi/qutub-minar) is 72.5 metres of fluted red sandstone begun in 1193, the tallest brick minaret ever built. In the courtyard stands the Iron Pillar, forged in the 4th century and still not rusted after 1,600 years, which remains a genuine metallurgical puzzle.

If you have one day, these three plus India Gate are the day. Everything below is what you add when you have more.

Jama Masjid was finished in 1656 and is still India's largest mosque. The courtyard holds 25,000 people and is paved in black and white marble; the two minarets are 40 metres each and you can climb one for the best rooftop view of Old Delhi there is. Entry is free. Non-Muslim visitors are welcome outside prayer times, shoulders and knees must be covered, and robes are lent at the gate. Friday is the busiest day by a distance.

Chandni Chowk runs 1.5 km west from the Red Fort to the mosque and was once described by travellers as the richest street in the world. It is now a market of extraordinary density: bridal fabric, Ayurvedic medicine, wholesale electronics, and Paranthe Wali Gali, a lane of stuffed flatbread shops that has been trading since the 19th century.

Khari Baoli, at the western end, is the largest wholesale spice market in Asia and has run continuously since the 1600s. You will smell it before you reach it.

Go on foot or by cycle-rickshaw; a car is useless in these lanes. Metro: Chandni Chowk on the Yellow Line, or Lal Quila on the Violet Line.

The [Lotus Temple](/india/delhi/lotus-temple) is a Bahá'í house of worship completed in 1986: twenty-seven free-standing marble petals arranged into a lotus in bloom. There are no idols and no sermons inside, only silence, and it is open to everyone regardless of faith. Free. Closed Mondays. Metro: Kalkaji Mandir, Violet Line.

[Akshardham](/india/delhi/akshardham-temple) opened in 2005 and is one of the largest Hindu temples in the world, carved from 6,000 tonnes of Rajasthani pink sandstone with some 20,000 figures worked into it. Entry to the grounds is free; the exhibitions and the evening water show are ticketed. No phones, cameras or bags are allowed inside and the security queue is long, so leave them at your hotel rather than at the lockers. Closed Mondays. Metro: Akshardham, Blue Line.

Laxmi Narayan Temple, usually called Birla Mandir, was opened by Gandhi in 1939 on the condition that it admit people of every caste. It is smaller, quieter, and central.

[India Gate](/india/delhi/india-gate) is a 42-metre arch raised in 1931 for the 84,000 Indian soldiers who died in the First World War; 13,300 of their names are cut into the stone. It is free, open at any hour, and at its best after dark under floodlight, when half of Delhi is on the lawns.

Kartavya Path, the ceremonial avenue running from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan, is three kilometres of reflecting pools and trees and is the grandest walk in the country. The Republic Day parade on 26 January comes down it.

Lodhi Garden is ninety acres of park with 15th-century Sayyid and Lodi tombs standing in it, used every morning by Delhi for running and every evening for sitting. There is no ticket and no crowd control because it is not really a monument, it is a park that happens to contain six hundred years of graves.

Mehrauli Archaeological Park, seventy hectares next to Qutub Minar, holds Delhi's oldest medieval ruins and is almost always empty. If you like ruins without railings, go there.

Not everything on the standard list earns its half-day.

Raj Ghat is a black marble platform marking where Gandhi was cremated. It is dignified and it takes fifteen minutes. Treat it as a stop, not a destination.

Connaught Place is worth an hour for lunch and the Georgian colonnade, not an afternoon. It is a shopping district, and the shopping is better elsewhere.

The Rail Museum and Dilli Haat are good if you are travelling with children or want crafts under one roof. Neither belongs in a first two days.

Agra is not a Delhi attraction. It is 230 km away and a full day each way by road, or three and a half hours return by the Gatimaan Express. Plan it as its own day, not as an afternoon: see Delhi to Agra for how the journey actually works.