The Ancient Cities of Delhi tour

proxyindian

John and I are both into history and archaeology so we've decided to put into plan visiting Delhi's seven cities.

First, I have a few inspirations for seeing these places:
I'm finally getting around to reading City of Djinns by William Dalrymple and enjoying it very much.

Then there are the really wonderful pictures I found at Flickr of the old, old cites by a fellow librarian (I've never met her but we both have the same profession so I'm glad to point out her very smart career choice) http://www.flickr.com/photos/webethere/sets/1554001/ Being a librarian, her notes are very thorough.

And then there's the book Delhi: Its Monuments and History by Percival Spear, written in 1943 but updated in 1993.

How's this:
DAY ONE
Walk around the Civil Lines in the morning. I would like to get a taxi and go looking for the statue of George V in Coronation Park. Has anyone done this? Is it difficult to get to? Dalrymple seemed to have some trouble finding it.

Other things we wanted to see in Civil Lines were the abandond statue of Queen Victoria at the Delhi College of Art in Tilak Marg. It says in the additions to Percival Spear's Delhi book that Victoria "looks somewhat disconcerted by the abstract works that surround her and her placement just next to a drainpipe, but she is not lonely, and on one of my visits I discovered a marigold in her hand." Has anyone found this statue?

We also want to go to Nicholson Cemetery.

In the afternoon/evening we are going to go to Tomb of Safdar Jang and Lodi Gardens. What time should we set out for this?

DAY TWO
Get to Qutb Complex by 6 AM. That place seems quite large so we might spend 4 or 5 hours there.
Then to Hauz Kaus for lunch and shopping.
Then to Tughlaqabad.... I was thinking that a walk around there would take about an hour or two. Is that overdoing it? John says he's read that it's dangerous there. Is it?
Then to Humayun's Tomb and an evening in the Nizammudin village.

DAY THREE
Walk from Hotel Broadway to Firoz Shah Kotla in the morning
Afternoon - ???

I would like to see a few things that aren't in the program. The remains of Siri and Khirki Masjid but don't know if we can fit them into DAY TWO or if we'll be just too tired to go on DAY THREE.... we might just want to retire to Thugs at Hotel Broadway and drink a lot.

Has anyone gone visiting these old places? How much time would you recommend? Have I not named some places that you would go to? (We've already been to Purana Qila and Red Fort.)

machadinha

Of all these, I've only been to Feroz Shah Kotla. It is/was at the time in a bad state of disrepair (not even necessarily because of neglect, much of it is said to have been used for the construction of later cities after it fell into disuse), yet with some imagination I found it quite pleasant and evocative of the past enough. I guess an hour or so of strolling around here is more than enough, it's a very small site really with just a few remains, again, mostly in ruins. Just taking a glance at those would probably cost you not even twenty minutes.

I remember it as very quiet and serene; when I described it as such in the photo galleries, my friend at the time reminded me that in fact we were irritatingly followed around by pesky kids here. So much for the power of memory, eh What I know is it was on a return visit and you tend to be less perturbed by all those little hassles, I mostly just enjoyed the day out and grabbing a rickshaw here and there, and it is/was well off the tourist trail.

There is or used to be a small Tibetan refugee settlement just around the corner from here, you couldn't miss it, no idea if it's still there. Nothing much by way of a tourist sight and these people are hardly on exhibit anyway, but it was nice enough to walk by and goof around with the kids some.

Raj Ghat is close to here (within easy walking distance), Gandhi's cremation grounds and a large park with the rather unique quality or certainly in Delhi of being a nice spot to sit down and be left totally undisturbed. Or at least so we found it, maybe at any other spot or moment we'd have been followed around by the usual earcleaners and shoe polishers and pushy adolescents and so on, of course.

To visit all those seven sites sounds like a nice little project anyway. I'm sure you'll have fun with it.

__________________
Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

unclelach

George V was still there in 2003 when I made my visit. You will need a taxi rather than an auto rickshaw as the distance is considerable. Best to have a full map of Delhi as the place is well out in the north west. My taxi driver had never heard of it but explained that he was recently from Jaipur.

Over time several of the statues have been removed or stolen but George V is probably too large to make off with. I hope the original of my avatar image is still out there. See also some pics in my IM photo album. Hope you take some better ones and put them up in IM or Flickr.

Watch out for snakes in Nicholson Cemetery. I didn't see any but did spot a mongoose which is supposed to eat them.

proxyindian

Okay! Now I feel challenged to find it! I've got a number of maps that show the way and have found it on Google Earth so it should be fun.

Snakes? You mean like the kind of snakes that are on menus in bars? (Okay, dumb joke. I was refering to snacks being spelled as "snakes" which we saw more than a few times.) But, um, do you mean cobras or the much more cuddly garter?

This is right by Hotel Broadway and seems like a nice place to go in the morning. We were followed by kids for quite some time in Purana Qila. Mostly we ignored them but I did include them in some photos. They were rather nice kids and didn't ask for anything. Or maybe my memory has faded on this fact too! No, I think they were just curious kids.

If that's the same as "Tibetan Village" I think it was torn down. Things Tibetan are not interesting to me but I sure would hate to have my home torn down so I have sympathy... but I think it's all gone.

machadinha

I seem to remember hearing the Tibetans there had been removed yes.

Those kids... well, if my friend called them "pesky" that says it all. Like I said, I don't remember it though, but you know how they or the likes can spoil your day. The non-pesky kind of whatever age I get along just fine with though

Gibberish

The Coronation Park (better to ask for Coronation Pillar) is very close to an area called Nirankari Colony, which itself is near the well known area of Kingsway Camp (which in turn is near the Delhi university campus). You could potentially take the subway up to Delhi university and take an auto from there. Should be less than 3 miles from the subway stop. Autos in that area will know Nirankari Colony and may not know the Coronation Park (or the Coronation Pillar area) but pretty much everyone in Nirankari Colony would know of it. The park is less than a mile from Nirankari Colony.

Here are two other suggestions if you are in the Civil Lines area:

(1) a visit to the Mutiny Memorial on the North Delhi ridge (about 3 miles from the Delhi Univ subway)- http://delhigovt.nic.in/archeology/showMonu.asp?mId=14. If directing an auto, tell the driver to take you to Hindu Rao Hospital. The memorial is about 100 yards downhill from the main entrance to the hospital. There is also a relocated Asoka Pillar about a 100 yards or so from the memorial - in fact very close to the hospital gate. No one seems to care for either the Asoka Pillar or the Mutiny Memorial therefore they are in nice peaceful state of neglect.

(2) a quick look at the old Vice-Regal Lodge - currently the office of the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi university. A nice little building at the edge of the North Delhi ridge. You can take a nice walk around this area and see some of the old colonial buildings that house post-graduate departments of Delhi University. All of this is within walking distance from the Delhi University subway stop.

Don't know about the statue you are talking about but I doubt very much if this is in the Civil Lines area. Tilak Marg area is near India Gate.

edwardseco

There is another: The Small Monuments of Delhi I think..