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Sunday, September 30, 2012

New Delhi - Red Fort (Part 3)

The private quarters and bath house for the royal family are located apart from the rest of the buildings. These buildings are all beautifully decorated.

Red Fort Palace
Red Fort Palaces


Look at how intricately detailed and decorated the palaces are:

Red Fort Palace
Decorated columns and scalloped arches

Red Fort Palace walls, ceilings, screened windows
Decorated windows, walls and ceilings



The other side

Red Fort palace screened window
Screened window with arch

Archway

Red Fort Palace archway
Intricately carved archway


 Close up of the underside of the arch

Red Fort Palace arch carved underside close up
Carved underside of arch


 A different building



Decorated Building inside Red Fort
Another building

Decorated building inside Red Fort
Notice the symmetry of the columns 

Decorated building inside Red Fort
Corner view
Decorated building inside Red Fort
it's so light and airy

Close-up details of the buildings

Red Fort Palace close up details on ceiling
Ceiling, arch and underside of scalloped arch, tops of the walls

Red Fort Palace arch details close up
Arch, flowers, borders


Red Fort Palace flower tile on columns
Flower tile

Red Fort Palace side carvings
Carving on edges

Done with the Red Fort!

New Delhi - Red Fort (Part 2)

Here are some buildings inside the Red Fort. We didn't explore them anymore. (Thanks to superzoom, hehe)

Inside Red Fort
Lawn and buildings


Lawn and buildings



Brick building?


Inside Red Fort
Domed building
Close up of domed building

Inside Red Fort
Close up 

Another building

Inside Red Fort
Square building

Inside Red Fort
close up


Oh look! A squirrel!

Squirrel inside Red Fort
Squirrel rooting around


New Delhi - Red Fort (Part 1)

The Red Fort is well, a fort built a long time ago. Inside the sprawling complex are little streets filled with small stores which leads into open grounds. Parts of the Red Fort are still used as uhm, forts, to house soldiers. But the palaces inside are open to the public.

It's made of red sandstone, I think, hence, the name.

 There's a really wide paved road going into the fort (so they can see enemies approaching)

Red Fort
Imposing Red Fort


The wall is really imposing, see how small the man (bottom right corner) is compared to it.

Red Fort
Wall and ramparts(?)


The wall surrounds the entire complex. Here are photos off to the side...

Red Fort


 Side of the walls, upon entering

Red Fort entrance
Entrance facade


After passing through the shops, the first building you will see is the audience hall (I guess)

Path inside Red Fort
Inside Red Fort

It's an open air building with high ceilings...

Inside Red Fort open air building with scalloped arches
Open air building with scalloped arches

Inside Red Fort
Scalloped arches

Where we came from

Scalloped arches in silhouette
Arch silhouette


This audience hall was supposedly the site of the Peacock Throne (which I think was stolen by invaders or disappeared through the mists of time)


Red Fort peacock throne
Raised platform
Red Fort peacock throne


Red Fort Peacock throne platform details
Close up of details


Next in Part 2, buildings inside the Red Fort.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

New Delhi - Mosque

We also visited one of the largest mosques in New Delhi. For your information, mosques are for muslims, temples are for the buddhist, hindus, and jewish?.

We were required to remove our shoes before entering the mosque and wear shawls so that our shoulders and arms were covered. Be warned. Hahaha.

The mosque...there were a lot of people and birds.

New Delhi Mosque - largest
From the courtyard


See the gate again...and the birds...

New Delhi Mosque open ground
Left: one of the gates into the mosque. Right: birds


Inside the mosque, it was really simple. But I think women aren't really allowed inside because we got strange looks from the people there.


New Delhi Mosque interior
Mosque entryway, prayer area


The tower on the left side can be climbed by the public. So of course, K and I did. I forgot how many steps it was, but it was a lot of spirally small steps in a dark dank tower...

New Delhi Mosque corner towers
Corner towers


But the view at the top was worth it...

New Delhi Mosque Corner tower view
View from the tower




New Delhi - Humayun's Tomb

Ok, I'm gonna be honest here. We visited a lot of tombs, mosques and forts. And, if I confuse them, please refer to when K makes her own blog post on our India trip for the names of the places we actually went to.

*shrugs*

This is the first garden tomb (with the most popular being the Taj Mahal). All these tombs are actually just within a single family...

Humayun's Tomb
Humayun's Tomb


Domed entry, stairs, carved screens

Humayun's Tomb entry, stairs, stone screen
Details of the tomb


View towards the entrance. All tombs have north-south-east-west gates. They like symmetry.

Humayun's Tomb view of gardens
View of gardens and one of the gates


Domed ceiling inside

Humayun's Tomb domed ceiling
Carved stone ceiling



New Delhi Museum

Since it was raining, we decided to take refuge in the Museum (hahaha, this was really in the itinerary ok).


There was a huge collection of rock and wood carvings...

New Delhi Museum carvings
Samples of carvings inside and outside the museum

At the New Delhi Museum



Silk miniature paintings with incredible detail. No face or dress that are the same. (Click for actual size, I hope.)

New Delhi Museum miniature paintings
Miniature painting

New Delhi Museum miniature paintings




Relics

New Delhi Museum relics in gold case
Close up of relics in golden display case

at the New Delhi Museum



And a beautiful set of miniature chess!

New Delhi Museum display
Recreation of a typical living area


See that small table in the foreground? It looks like this up close!

New Delhi Museum carved miniature chess set
Carved miniature chess set

New Delhi Museum carved miniature chess set




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