The Red Fort

Overview:

The Sym­bol of India’s Inde­pen­dence the incred­i­ble sand­stone Red Fort was the home of the Mughal emper­ors and stands today as not just a last­ing mon­u­ment filled with the sto­ried his­to­ry of India, but as a tru­ly exquis­ite com­plex with pris­tine Mar­ble Palaces, great halls, a bustling Bazar and a tran­quil gar­den, mak­ing it not just one of the great sym­bols of India but also a tru­ly aston­ish­ing and wor­thy won­der of the world.

Offi­cial­ly com­plet­ed in 1648 and con­ceived by the emper­or Shah Jehan when he moved the Indi­an cap­i­tal from Agra to Del­hi, the Red Fort has under­gone mul­ti­ple attacks, with the Per­sians attack­ing the fort in 1740’s, the Maratha kings occu­py­ing the fort in the 1750’s and the British tak­ing it over in 1857 – which unfor­tu­nate­ly meant that parts of the Red Fort includ­ing the fan­tas­tic Sil­ver ceil­ing from the Diwan-i-Khas room, which was melt­ed down to pay for War by the Maratha’s and the Icon­ic Pea­cock throne which was lost in the 18th Cen­tu­ry are sad­ly absent from the Red Fort.

Yet despite this the Red Fort in its cur­rent state still remains a true archi­tec­tur­al and beau­ti­ful won­der, with the remain­ing rooms, palaces and halls all offer­ing a unique insight to the sto­ried his­to­ry of great Indi­an emper­ors, and the night­ly video and light show pro­vid­ing a jour­ney into the red forts sig­nif­i­cance and impor­tance in India Cul­ture which is also reflect­ed every August the 15th when the Flag of India is raised at the fort to cel­e­brate India’s Inde­pen­dence – mean­ing that the Red Fort is both a stun­ning and sto­ried mon­u­ment to India’s past, present and future and a tru­ly beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.

Where:

The red Fort is found in the cap­i­tal of India, in New Del­hi – with the old Del­hi region offi­cial­ly end­ing at the start of the Red Fort, it’s eas­i­ly seen and found by Tuk Tuk or Metro from any­where in the cap­i­tal.

Getting there:

The eas­i­est way to reach the Red Fort is either by Tuk Tuk or Taxi from Del­hi – just hail one down and tell them the Red Fort – it should cost around 8Usd or 600 Rupees – any more and you’re being scammed.

For those who pre­fer get­ting there by the air con­di­tioned Metro and sav­ing a bit of cash you can take either the Yel­low line of the Metro to Chand­ni Chowk sta­tion for 30 rup­pees and then walk about 500 metres to the Red Fort – or jump on the Del­hi Metro Her­itage Line (Vio­let Line) and head to Lal Qila Metro Sta­tion which will drop you off right by the Red Fort.

Once at the Red Fort you’ll then need to head to the Lahori Gate and hav­ing passed through secu­ri­ty and hav­ing grabbed your tick­et you’ll go through an arch­way into the fan­tas­tic Chat­ta Chowk and bazaar area and into the incred­i­ble red Fort.

Best time to Visit:

The fort opens at 9:30am every day – except Mon­days – and we’d real­ly advise book­ing your tick­ets in advance online to skip past the queues to allow you to enter ear­ly with min­i­mal crowds and when the heat is at a min­i­mum – do note you’ll have to be out as 4pm (we’d sug­gest ear­li­er to avoid rush hour) as the red fort clos­es before sun down, but the grassy bank at its foot remains open through the evening to allow for the Video, light and sound show which takes place each evening at 6pm and 7:30 pm to be seen.

For the best time to vis­it month wise – it’s strong­ly advised to avoid vis­it­ing the red fort dur­ing the sum­mer months, as the heat will take away from your enjoy­ment going round the won­der, instead we’d sug­gest head­ing there between Sep­tem­ber and March – when both crowds and heat will be at a min­i­mum.

Explore:

Although the numer­ous inva­sions and sack­ings of the red fort means it’s cur­rent­ly lack­ing some of its for­mer glo­ry – includ­ing the famous Gold­en pea­cock throne – the red fort still stands proud as not just the sym­bol of India’s inde­pen­dence, but as a unique and archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal won­der – with the tow­er­ing sand­stone walls, the numer­ous gate­ways, the intact palaces and a bustling bazaar ‑com­bined with beau­ti­ful gar­dens and incred­i­ble art give a unique jour­ney into the pow­er and his­to­ry of one of India’s most his­toric mon­u­ments.

In a sug­gest­ed round tour, the below are our 8 top sights to see in the incred­i­ble Red Fort palace:

Lahori Gate:

The start of your jour­ney, the Lahori gate will be the main gate through which you enter the Red Fort and is named after it’s cor­re­spond­ing city, with the gate in itself being an awe-inspir­ing struc­ture and once com­pared by the Emper­or Jahan as a ‘bride’s veil.’ Although the gate has been breached a few times in it’s his­to­ry and still bears some of the marks of its scarred past, its beau­ty still remains – and it is right­ly the place not just to get the icon­ic main pho­to of the red Fort – but also the place with Indi­an Inde­pen­dence day is cel­e­brat­ed with a Flag cer­e­mo­ny and Speech every August.

Chatta Chowk

Hav­ing jour­neyed through the gate, you’ll come to the beau­ti­ful chat­ta Chowk – which was once a place for jew­ellers, crafts men and where sales­man would gath­er to sell their prod­ucts – includ­ing the famous Indi­an Silk to the roy­al Fam­i­ly. Although the mar­ket is now replaced with the Bazaar (below), the Chat­ta Chowk, which sits with­in the stun­ning entry arch­way is a place to reflect on the mer­chant trade and his­to­ry where trav­ellers would jour­ney across the Silk Road in the hope of sell­ing to the roy­al fam­i­ly.

Bazaar

As you approach the mid-way point of the arch­way – hav­ing gone through the Lahori Gate and the pre­vi­ous site of the Chat­ta Chowk, you’ll come up on a Bazaar with mul­ti­ple goods on offer. While Bazaars dot the mar­ket­places and streets of Del­hi, this one in par­tic­u­lar is unique as it is gov­ern­ment reg­u­lat­ed – so no hag­gling! – mean­ing that for those of you want­i­ng a sou­venir from the won­der or who fan­cy strolling around an Indi­an mar­ket minus the has­sle and sales pitch­es, this is the place for you!

The Diwan-e-Aam:

Hav­ing made your way through the arch, and grabbed a bar­gain or two at the Bazaar, you’ll now enter the beau­ty of the red fort and from its court­yard we rec­om­mend head­ing straight to the stun­ning Diwan-e-Aam – what was once the red Fort’s palace for pub­lic audi­ence and state func­tions.

The Diwan-e-Aam is divid­ed by stun­ning con­crete pil­lars into four sec­tions and is full of charm with the floors dec­o­rat­ed by stun­ning Mar­ble and the walls fea­tur­ing unique carv­ings from the Mughal era that embod­ies the beau­ty and his­to­ry of this stun­ning room.

Mumtaz Mahal

The palace of the emper­ors Shah Jahans wife that she occu­pied while alive (the Taj Mahal would lat­er be built in mem­o­ry of Shah Jahans wife) the Mum­taz Mahal also served as prison and army bar­racks and as muse­um. While much of the beau­ty of the Mum­taz Mahal has ebbed away over the course of his­to­ry and as a result of mis­treat­ment, a small room with art, paint­ing and mir­ror work still remains which gives a small glimpse into what was once a beau­ti­ful place.

Rang Mahal

Once home to the mis­tress­es and addi­tion­al wives (plur­al) the Rang Mahal sat with­in the Red Fort as a palace of Colour and lights – with the out­side of the build­ing being unique­ly dec­o­rat­ed and craft­ed with a series of mir­rors and at works – inside the Range has Mar­ble floors, unique columns and one fo the best fea­tures of the entire red fort a mar­ble pool which was known as the pool of par­adise in which the wives and mis­tress­es once bathed.

Khas Mahal

Next to the Rand Mahal stands the Khas Mahal, which was the palace of the emper­or, as with the Rang this palace was grand­ly dec­o­rat­ed with the best of the Mughal era archi­tec­ture and art works, includ­ing mar­ble floors and stun­ning archi­tec­ture – you’ll also notice it is con­nect­ed to a large tow­er known as the Mutham­man Burj – from which the Emper­or would wave and appear before his sub­jects on spe­cial occa­sions.

The Diwan-i-Khas 

The best remain­ing struc­ture the Diwan-e-Khas was the hall for pri­vate audi­ence, where the emper­or would meet fel­low kings and dig­ni­taries, against a back­drop of mar­ble floors, stun­ning­ly crafter engrav­ings and exquis­ite columns, in fact so revered was the beau­ty of this room and it’s mag­nif­i­cent archi­tec­ture that it was fre­quent­ly described as heav­en on earth by those who vis­it­ed it.

While the room main­tains it’s unique beau­ty – its cen­tre­piece – the pea­cock throne which upon its con­struc­tion was worth one and a half bil­lion pounds, and which was a tru­ly stun­ning gold throne tru­ly fit for an emper­or – remains sad­ly absent fol­low­ing it’s plun­der­ing and the once icon­ic reflec­tive sil­ver ceil­ing was chipped away to be sold for parts to pay for war. Yet despite this the The Diwan-i-Khas remains a tru­ly stun­ning build­ing and a unique place in the great red fort.

Hayat Bakhsh Bagh

Upon exit­ing the palace’s, you’ll come across a mag­nif­i­cent gar­den, with the cen­tre­piece being a sand­stone sculp­ture that sits along­side numer­ous rivers which will unfor­tu­nate­ly dry allow you to envis­age the beau­ty of the gar­dens and the life that once flowed through it when the red Fort was at it’s most spec­tac­u­lar and which the Indi­an gov­ern­ment has plans to restore. At each end of the Hay­at Bakhsh Bagh you’ll find a stun­ning mar­ble pavil­ion named Sawan and Bhadon which are still stand­ing and which pro­vide a spec­tac­u­lar back­drop against which to pho­to­graph the stun­ning red fort as you leave the com­plex and head back into the busy streets of Del­hi.

Light and Sound Show

Along­side vis­it­ing the Red Fort dur­ing the day and tak­ing your time to stroll amongst the stun­ning palaces, court­yards and gar­dens, it’s also high­ly rec­om­mend­ed to return to the out­side of the fort in the evening — for a light and sound show that tells the his­to­ry of the red fort, its incep­tion, the numer­ous wars and how it stands as a bea­con for India’s inde­pen­dence.

Each video per­for­mance ends with the Nation­al Anthem, and is shown first in Hin­du lan­guage from 6pm and then in Eng­lish lan­guage from 7:30 – with each per­for­mance last­ing about half an hour and best enjoyed from the gassy bank at the foot of the red fort – with a trip to enjoy the video and explore and under­stand the Red Fort’s sig­nif­i­cance a great way to top off a day explor­ing this tru­ly unique won­der of the world.

How long to stay:

We’d rec­om­mend get­ting to the Red Fort ear­ly doors, as soon as it opens – and then spend­ing a cou­ple of hours tour­ing both its mar­kets and the fan­tas­tic palaces and court­yards that lie with­in the won­der – and then being sure to return in the evening for the light, sound and his­to­ry show that lasts for around half an hour, just be sure to trav­el safe­ly and be on your guard in the evenings when watch­ing the show.

Top Tip:

It’s strong­ly advised to avoid vis­it­ing Del­hi dur­ing the sum­mer – to avoid the heat wave, which can make vis­it­ing the red fort a lit­tle unbear­able — also when­er you head to the red fort be sure to book your tick­ets online to avoid long queues when enter­ing, come with plen­ty of water and get there as ear­ly as you can to avoid what can be at time fran­tic crowds

For those keen on a bar­gain as well, remem­ber that the Bazaar inside the red fort is sup­posed to be set prices and reg­u­lat­ed by the gov­ern­ment, so if you find your­self hag­gling it’s advised to move on to the next stall.

Final­ly and espe­cial­ly for females, be sure to be on your guard when going round the Red Fort, while secu­ri­ty is tight inci­dents of harass­ment and stolen goods have been known to occur.

Cost:

For locals and Indi­ans the price of entry is ₹40 Rupees if pay­ing in cash (0.5 Usd) or ₹35 Rupees (0.45 usd) if going cash­less – with inter­na­tion­al trav­ellers expect­ed to pay ₹600 rupees (8usd) if pay­ing by cash or ₹550 rupees (7.5 usd) if going cash­less – mak­ing the red fort one of the cheap­est won­ders in the world to enter.

In terms of get­ting tick­ets, out of the four main gates it’s advised to head to the Lahore Gate on the west of the Fort for buy­ing tick­ets on the day as it’s the most acces­si­ble – or alter­na­tive­ly head to (https://insider.in/lal-qila-red-fort-delhi-delhi/event) to buy your tick­ets online and to avoid queu­ing – for a much eas­i­er and enjoy­able expe­ri­ence in enter­ing the Red Fort.

Best photo spot:

You’ll have to get up ear­ly – but a shot of the sun ris­ing against the red fort at it’s main gate, will give you not just a shot of the whole of the main fort but a glow­ing and crowd free snap of this spec­tac­u­lar won­der.