Old Fort

Delhi, as a city is adorned by the famous Red Fort and the Old Fort. The Mughal emperor Humayun constructed the Old Fort. Humayun decided the ancient city Indraprastha to build his city. In fact, Humayun was the only emperor in history, who built a city, but did not name the city after himself. The construction of the Old fort started in 1533 and it was completed in five years. The Old fort is also famous with the name of Purana Qila. The fort and the other structures were known as the sixth city of Delhi.

In year 1540, Humayun was defeated by Sher Shah Suri and he renamed the Old Fort as Shergarh. During his rule of five years, he added several more structures in the complex of the Old Fort. Humayun recaptured the fort in year 1555 but he died a year after this because of the unfortunate accident in the fort only. After Humayun, Hemu captured the Old Fort and established a Hindu rule in the North India. However, he was killed during the second Battle of Panipat in 1556.

The Old fort of the Purana Qila has wall rising to the height of around 18 meters and stretching over 1.5 kilometers. The Fort has three major arched gateways. Out of the three, the Bara darwaza or the big gate which faces the west side is used these days.

The south gate is also known as the Humayun gate as it was constructed by Humayun. The Humayun tomb is visible from the south gate. The third and the last gate are called as the Talaqi Gate is a forbidden gate. The gates are massive structures and are made of sandstone, with two semi circular bastion towers. White and colored marbles were used to decorate them. The Old Fort is situated on the banks of river Yamuna. One of the important structures in the Purana Qila is the Qila-i-Kuhna mosque. Sher shah Suri built this mosque in the year 1541. The mosque was specially designed as the Friday mosque or the Jami mosque. The mosque was used by Sultan only. The mosque consists of a prayer hall measuring around 51.20 m by 14.90 m. the mosque is very well preserved in the complex of the Purana Qila.

The Old Fort also has Sher Mandal which lies towards the south of the mosque. This structure was built by Sher shah Suri and was used as observatory.