Humayun's Tomb

Humayun's Tomb stands in Nizamuddin East in south-central Delhi, near the shrine of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya. Empress Bega Begum, the widow of the second Mughal emperor Humayun, commissioned it after his death in 1556. The Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas and his son Sayyid Muhammad designed it, and work ran from about 1565 to 1572 at a cost of around 1.5 million rupees.

It was the first garden tomb on the Indian subcontinent and the first building to use red sandstone and white marble on such a grand scale. Its plan, with a high double dome on a raised platform in the centre of a walled garden, shaped later Mughal mausoleums, including the Taj Mahal. More than 100 graves of Mughal family members lie in the complex, which has earned it the name Dormitory of the Mughals. In 1857 the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, took refuge here before British forces captured him.

The main tomb rises from a broad arcaded platform and is crowned by a white marble double dome. The interior follows a Persian plan with an octagonal central chamber surrounded by smaller rooms. The tomb stands in a charbagh, a garden divided into four parts by paths and water channels with fountains. The complex also includes the earlier octagonal tomb of Isa Khan Niyazi, built in 1547, the Barber's Tomb and the Arab Serai gateway.

UNESCO listed Humayun's Tomb as a World Heritage Site in 1993. A restoration by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India, finished around 2003, brought the gardens back to life and restarted the water channels, and further conservation work has continued since.

Tickets are sold at the gate and online through the Archaeological Survey of India. Delhi Tourism lists entry at ₹40 for Indian visitors and ₹600 for foreign visitors, with no charge for still photography and ₹25 for video. The site is open every day from sunrise to sunset. Allow one and a half to two hours, and visit in the early morning or late afternoon for softer light. The nearest metro station is JLN Stadium, and Nizamuddin railway station is close by.

Bega Begum, also known as Haji Begum, chose a site near the Yamuna river for its closeness to the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya, and she is buried in the tomb herself. So is Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan and great-great-grandson of Humayun, along with later emperors including Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar and Alamgir II.

The scale is easier to grasp on the spot. The enclosure is entered through two double-storeyed gateways on the west and south, each 16 metres high. The tomb stands on a vaulted terrace eight metres high that covers 12,000 square metres, and rises to 47 metres. Its plinth is 91 metres wide, and it was the first building in India to set a Persian double dome on a high drum, so the outer dome looks tall from the garden while the inner ceiling stays in proportion to the chamber below.

The complex has seen hard times. During Partition in August 1947, Humayun's Tomb and the nearby Purana Qila became large refugee camps for Muslims waiting to leave for Pakistan. The garden is calmer now; walk the raised paths between the water channels to see the tomb framed from each side.