Red Fort Travel

Introduction

The Red Fort (Lal Quila) is an ancient Mughal monument built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 17th century at the old Delhi. The Red Fort was served as the palace for ShahJahan’s new capital Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi) in Delhi till 1639. Earlier Red Fort was named as the Quila-i-Mubarak ('The Blessed Fort'), was formally became a home to Mughal Royal Family as well as the capital city of Emperor ShahJahan. Later on, Shah Jahan had sifted his capital from Agra to Delhi for fulfilling his great ambitions of building new Mughal architectural monuments. Red Fort is a most attractive tourists spot in Delhi situated along with the bank of Yamuna River. The monument is also enrolled in the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.

History

Red fort is an oldest historical monument of India which was constructed in between 1638 to 1648 AD. The Red Fort got the name red due to its excess use of red sandstone on each walls of the fort. The Mughal architects Ustad Ahmad and Ustad Hamid were the maker of this royal palace. In 18th century after Aurangzeb ruling, a long down fall was arrived in the Red Fort Palace, it was remained empty without any emperor until 30 years. Thus, a major financial falling arrived and to combat this situation, the silver ceiling of the Rang Mahal was replaced by the copper one.

In 1803, after defeating the Marathas dynasty, British East India Company had took over the charges of Mughal territories and made the residents at the Mughal Courts in Red Fort. The last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah II "Zafar" was also defeated in occupying the fort by rebelling against British in 1857. After exile of last Mughal emperor Zafar in 1858, British gave the official orders to remove all the valuables from the Red Fort palace and ruined the fort at their best to make it a military building. After India independence, the fort area was used as the cantonment by the Indian Army. In 22 Dec 2003, the fort was handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India for reinstallations.

Architectures and developments

The Red Fort is a longest monument in old Delhi with a 2.5km length and height of 16 meters & 33 meter which is spreads along with the Yamuna River. It means the Red Fort covers total area of 254.67 acres within 2.4kms of defense walls. The fort is forming a shape of an Octagon with the flooring of marble in floral decorations and double domes shows the wonderful high form of creations made by the Mughal Architects. It is estimated that Kohinoor Diamond was the major attractions in the ornamental decorations of the fort. See the traditional Shah Jahani form of art work in the entire Red Fort Designing. The art work was formed by the fusion of Persian, European and Indian art work to form a rich colour technique and expressions. Thus, we can see the Red Fort shows us the long period of Indian history, traditions and culture. Finally, in 1913, the Red Fort was considered as the National Monument of India.

Besides Red Fort you will see the Salimgarh Fort, another older fort built by Islam Ruler Shah Suri in 1546.

Sites and structures

The Red Fort in Delhi is made up of the sandstones that hold impressive audience halls, marble palaces, once embedded with precious stones, a market place, a mosque, and gardens with marbled fountains, plazas, bathhouses etc. You will see all around different 15 edifices in the Fort.

1. The Lahore Gate: The Lahore gate was earlier constructed by the Mughal Emperor Baber and later on finished by his successor Aurangzeb. The Lahore gate is also termed as the national monument, as on August 15, India Independence Day; Prime Minister of India expands the National flag and delivers the speech to the nation.

2. Chatta Chowk Bazar: The entrance of the Lahore Gate is covered by a bazaar known as Chatta Chowk. Besides it watch a welcome room Naqqar Khana (Drum Room) in Urdu called Naubat Khana. Next is an apartment build for the Nobels on duty. From this room, the emperor move towards the ‘Diwan-E-Am’ (a public hall) on the elephants to solve the problems of common man.

3. Naqqar Khana: It is a music gallery where music was performing to welcome the Emperor or to send him the best wishes for a safe journey. Adjutant, see the War Memorial Museum which is located at the first floor of the fort.

4. Diwan-i-Khas (A Private Hall): Here Emperor was setting the private meetings. The hall is well decorated with marble. See a peacock throne at the center, which was bought from Iran in 1739 by Nadir Shah. You will see a famous Persian couplet carved on the wall that shows the ancient magnificence of the fort.

5. Mughal Emperor: You will see a beautifully decorative balcony throne that looks like the Throne of King Solomon of Persia, which was used here by the Mughal Emperor. Just behind the throne, see a decorative private chamber which is facing to the River Yamuna.

6. The Nahrr-i-Behisht or the 'Stream of Paradise'- The continuing stream of Yamuna water is flowing into the centers of all the domes in the fort. At the southernmost part of the fort see the pavilion named as Zenanas, a private house of the Royal Ladies. See two archaeological museums named as 'Mumtaaz Mahal' and 'Rang Mahal' in the same rows of the pavilions at the fort.

7. Moti Masjid: See a white marble constructed ‘Moti Masjid’ situated in the Red Fort Complex which was served as the private home to the Emperor.

How to reach

You can reach to the famous Delhi’s Red Fort which lies on the Netaji Subhash Marg in the Old Delhi, next to Chandni Chowk from any road of Delhi. Or simply come by the metro link from the Kashmiri Gate as the nearest station.