An emperor moves his court
Why he left Agra: the city was cramped, the river banks were full and Akbar's old fort no longer suited the scale of Shah Jahan's court.
A new capital beside the old: as Delhi's rulers had done for five hundred years. Shahjahanabad, now Old Delhi, rose on the west bank of the Yamuna.
The dates: work began in 1639, and the emperor rode in for the formal opening in 1648.
- Built
- 1639 to 1648
- Built by
- Shah Jahan; design credited to Ustad Ahmad Lahori
- Open
- Closed on Mondays
- Allow
- Two to three hours
- Best time
- The first hour after opening
- Photography
- Welcome in the open courts, no drones
- Getting there
- Dropped at the pedestrian zone, Lahori Gate
- The master builder: usually credited to Ustad Ahmad Lahori, also linked with the Taj Mahal. You feel the same mind: white marble, water running through stone, order and proportion.
- Its real name: the Mughals called it the Qila-e-Mubarak, the blessed fort. The people of the city called it Lal Qila, after its red walls.
- Brighter then: the marble pavilions were painted and gilded, ceilings plated in silver, and silk awnings stretched over the courts in the heat.
- Cooled by water: canals carried the river through every palace.
- Rajputs at court: the kings of Amer, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Bundi were great Mughal nobles, and their princes stood in the hall of public audience in order of rank.
- Brought home to Jaipur: our rulers spent years in Mughal service, and the City Palace in Jaipur borrows openly from what they saw here.
- The long story: our piece on Mughal and Rajput history.
- 1739: the Persian ruler Nadir Shah sacked Delhi and carried away the Peacock Throne.
- 1760: the Marathas stripped the silver from the ceiling of the private audience hall.
- A pensioner's court: by the early nineteenth century the emperor was a pensioner of the East India Company, yet still held court here among poets, princes and musicians.
1857 and the last emperor
The revolt: in May 1857 Indian soldiers of the Company's army rose at Meerut and rode to Delhi.
A reluctant leader: they asked the elderly emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, a gentle poet in his eighties, to lead them. He hesitated, then agreed.
Four months: Delhi was the centre of the great uprising.
- May 1857
- Soldiers ride in from Meerut
- September 1857
- The British retake Delhi
- 1858
- Zafar tried, then exiled
- 1945
- INA courts martial
- 15 August 1947
- Nehru raises the flag
- 2007
- UNESCO lists the Red Fort Complex
- Flight and capture: when the British retook the city, Zafar slipped out and took refuge in Humayun's Tomb, where he was captured.
- Exile: brought back to his own palace as a prisoner, tried in 1858 and sent to Rangoon, where he died in 1862.
- Why it looks half empty: the British army demolished most of the buildings, including the harem courts, the gardens and the houses of princes and servants.
- In their place: barracks, parade grounds and stores.
- What survives: the ceremonial core, a line of pavilions along the old river front, a little lost on lawns that were once crowded courtyards.
- The INA trials: in the winter of 1945 the British court-martialled officers of the Indian National Army, who had fought alongside Japan under Subhas Chandra Bose. Public feeling turned decisively against the Raj.
- Independence: on 15 August 1947 Jawaharlal Nehru raised India's flag above the Lahori Gate, and every Prime Minister since has spoken from that rampart.
- Handed back: the army gave the fort to the Archaeological Survey of India in 2003.
- Listed: UNESCO listed the Red Fort Complex, with the older Salimgarh Fort beside it, in 2007.
Walking the fort, gate by gate and hall by hall
- Enter
- Lahori Gate
- Then
- Chhatta Chowk, Naubat Khana
- Public hall
- Diwan-i-Aam
- Private palaces
- Rang Mahal to Diwan-i-Khas
- Finish
- Hayat Bakhsh Bagh, barrack museums
The Lahori Gate and its barbican
The name: it faces west towards Lahore.
The look: tall red sandstone, with octagonal towers and a row of small white chhatris, the domed pavilions you will see on every palace in Rajasthan.
- The barbican: Aurangzeb added the walled front to make the gate harder to storm.
- A father's verdict: Shah Jahan, by then his son's prisoner in Agra, is said to have written that Aurangzeb had made a bride of the palace and put a veil over her face.
- The rampart: where the Prime Minister speaks every August.
Chhatta Chowk, the covered bazaar
What it is: a vaulted, two-storey arcade of shops, lit from an opening in the centre.
- Its origin: Shah Jahan is said to have seen a covered bazaar in Peshawar and wanted one of his own.
- Then and now: it sold silks, jewels and gold work to the court ladies. Today it sells souvenirs.
- Stop in the middle: look up at the octagonal light well. It is one of very few covered markets of its age in India.
The Naubat Khana, house of drums
The music: drums and shawms played here at fixed hours and to announce great nobles.
- Hathi Pol: everyone except royalty dismounted here, hence the name elephant gate.
- Upstairs: the Indian War Memorial Museum, with arms and uniforms children often enjoy more than the palaces.
The Diwan-i-Aam, the hall of public audience
Where the empire was run: a forest of cusped red sandstone arches, once coated in lime plaster so fine it shone like marble.
The throne: a raised marble canopy where the emperor sat each day to hear petitions and receive ambassadors.
- Below it: a low marble platform for the chief minister.
- The nobles: they stood in rows by rank, and the Rajput princes had fixed places among them.
- The wall behind: inlaid panels of birds, flowers and fruit in coloured stone.
- Orpheus: at the top, a small figure playing his lute to the animals, almost certainly by Italian craftsmen, a sign of how widely the court looked.
- To London and back: several panels were carried off after 1857 and returned only in the early twentieth century.
The Rang Mahal, the palace of colours
The private palace begins: a line of marble pavilions that once looked straight over the river.
The largest women's apartment: named for the paintings that once covered it.
- The lotus basin: a shallow marble basin carved like an open flower, set in the floor of the central hall.
- The stream of paradise: the Nahr-i-Bihisht channel ran the full length of the palace and fed it.
- Imagine it: water over the carved petals, lamps reflected, and a river breeze through the screens. You look in from outside today.
The Mumtaz Mahal
What it is: the simpler southern pavilion of the women's quarters.
- A museum: for much of the last century.
- Why pause: to see how the zenana was laid out, and how much of it is now missing.
The Khas Mahal, the emperor's own rooms
Three rooms: a chamber of prayer, a sleeping room and a robing room.
The scales of justice: on the northern screen, a marble jali with a pair of scales in a crescent moon among the stars, the Mizan-i-Adl.
- Its meaning: to remind the emperor every night what his power was for.
- The Muthamman Burj: an octagonal tower with a balcony against the river wall.
- Jharokha darshan: every morning the emperor showed himself here to crowds on the sands below. Many would not eat until they had seen him.
- A Rajput echo: the same jharokha window appears in palaces all the way to Udaipur.
The Diwan-i-Khas, the hall of private audience
The jewel of the fort: an open pavilion of white marble on a raised plinth.
The piers: inlaid with flowering plants in carnelian, jade and lapis, the arches scalloped and gilded.
- Its purpose: the emperor met ministers, princes and envoys here in private.
- The Peacock Throne: it stood on the central marble platform until 1739.
- The ceiling: once silver, until the Marathas melted it in 1760. The present one is a later wooden replacement.
- The verse: often attributed to Amir Khusrau, it says that if there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.
- A later trial: in this same hall, a century on, the British tried the last emperor.
The Hammam and the Moti Masjid
The royal baths: three marble chambers with inlaid floors, hot and cold water in separate channels. Usually closed, but you can peer in.
- The Pearl Mosque: a small, perfect private mosque in white marble with three domes, built by Aurangzeb in 1659.
- From outside: it is usually closed too, but the domes above the wall are worth a photograph.
The Hayat Bakhsh Bagh and the Zafar Mahal
The life-giving garden: a charbagh, the four-part Mughal garden divided by water channels.
Sawan and Bhadon: marble pavilions at either end, named for the two monsoon months.
- Lit water: it poured over carved niches where lamps burned, so the falling water seemed lit from within.
- The Zafar Mahal: a red sandstone pavilion in the central tank, added around 1842 by Bahadur Shah Zafar.
- The last addition: the final building the Mughals ever added to their palace, a small, sad full stop.
The barrack museums
Since 2019: several colonial barracks house museums on 1857, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Subhas Chandra Bose and the INA, and a gallery of Indian art.
- Comfortable: well made and air-conditioned, which matters in April.
- Who'll love them: travellers interested in modern India. An hour here complements the Mughal story perfectly.
Reading the architecture in plain words
Red for power: sandstone quarried on the edge of what is now Rajasthan, for walls, gates and the public spaces.
White for the emperor: marble, the finest from Makrana in Rajasthan, reserved for his private world.
The rule: the further in you go, the whiter the buildings become.
- Red and white
- Power outside, privacy within
- Water
- The Nahr-i-Bihisht canal
- The river
- Every private hall faced east
- Marble from
- Makrana, Rajasthan
- Where the stone comes from: our page on the marble craft of Makrana explains who still carves it.
- One canal: the Nahr-i-Bihisht drew water from the Yamuna at the northern tower, through the baths, the private hall, the emperor's rooms and the women's palaces.
- Cooling and paradise: a working cooling system, and a picture of the Quran's gardens of paradise.
- In Rajasthan: the palaces of Amer and Deeg use the same idea, and Jaipur's Amber Fort has its own version in the gardens below the walls.
- The river has moved: the Yamuna once flowed right below the walls. Ring Road now runs where the water was.
- Picture it: from the eastern terrace, imagine boats, bathing elephants and crowds on the sand waiting for the emperor.
- Compare with Agra: the Agra Fort is older and more complete, with buildings of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.
- One design: the Red Fort is a single, unified plan by one emperor at the height of Mughal taste, then heavily cut down.
- See both: our Golden Triangle journey is built around that comparison.
The best hour and the best season
First hour: the courts are cool, the light is soft on the marble and the Diwan-i-Khas is empty.
Crowds: school groups and tour buses arrive mid-morning, and noon on a winter weekend can be very busy.
- Inside the halls
- The first hour after opening
- For the walls
- The last hour of afternoon
- Busiest
- Mid-morning to noon, winter weekends
- Comfortable
- October to March
- Clearest
- February and March
- Closures
- Mondays; before 15 August; around 26 January
- Our usual plan: Old Delhi at dawn, breakfast in the lanes, the fort soon after opening, out again before lunch.
- Late afternoon instead: the Lahori Gate faces west, and the last sun turns it the colour of embers as the crowd below thins.
- November and December: poor air and haze can make the walls look grey. We shorten the visit, keep you in the car between sights and save the gardens for a clearer morning.
- April to June: serious heat and little shade, so go at opening and be out within two hours.
- Monsoon, July to September: the lawns turn green and the stone darkens beautifully after rain, but the humidity is heavy.
- Month by month: our guide to the best time to visit Delhi.
How to visit the Red Fort well
A private guide: one who knows Mughal history well. Ours carry old drawings and photographs of the courts before 1857, which changes the visit completely.
In and out: enter by the Lahori Gate and leave the same way. Your driver drops you at the edge of the pedestrian zone and meets you there.
Security: carry as little as possible. Drones are not permitted.
- Guide
- Private, with old drawings
- Security
- Airport-style at the gate
- Leave behind
- Large bags, knives, drones
- Shoes
- Closed and comfortable
- Carry
- Water, hat and scarf
- Footwear: the paths are long, partly gravel and partly old stone, and you will walk well over a kilometre without trying.
- Photography: personal use is welcome in the open courts. Some galleries restrict it, and tripods may need permission, so ask first.
- Limited mobility: the main route is largely level, but several pavilions have steps and paths are uneven. We can arrange a wheelchair and a slower route.
- Accessible days: our notes on accessible travel explain how we plan them.
- Shade: there is little between the pavilions.
- Check the day: Mondays are out, and the days before Independence Day and Republic Day are often restricted.
- Pair it with Old Delhi: the fort stands at the eastern end of Chandni Chowk, a short walk from the bazaar.
What most visitors walk past
- Khas Mahal
- The scales of justice
- Rang Mahal
- The lotus basin
- Diwan-i-Aam
- The Orpheus panel
- Delhi Gate
- Two stone elephants
- Near the barracks
- An old baoli
The scales of justice
- Easy to miss: set high in the Khas Mahal, and the room is roped off.
- Ask your guide: it is one of the finest pieces of carving in the fort.
The lotus basin in the Rang Mahal
Look at the floor: most people glance in and walk on.
- What you'll see: a marble fountain carved into a flower, petals inlaid in coloured stone.
- Why it matters: the clearest surviving sign of how the Nahr-i-Bihisht water was used.
The Orpheus panel
- Where: small and high on the wall behind the throne in the Diwan-i-Aam.
- Bring: binoculars, or use your camera's zoom.
The view from the eastern terrace
Walk behind the pavilions: to the old river wall.
- What you see: the old Yamuna front, Salimgarh Fort to the north and the railway bridge.
- The moment: you finally understand where the emperor stood each morning.
The Delhi Gate and its elephants
Where: the southern gate, nearest the Jama Masjid, guarded by two life-size stone elephants.
- Quiet: no longer the main entrance.
- Best photo spot: in the late afternoon, for the walls without a crowd.
The baoli
- What it is: an old stepwell near the barracks, a baori as we would call it in Rajasthan, cut deep into the ground.
- Often fenced: but a striking surprise among the lawns, and a link to the great stepwells of our own state.
What to pair with the Red Fort
- Chandni Chowk
- Straight west from the gate
- Jama Masjid
- Just south-west, 1650 to 1656
- Raj Ghat
- A short drive south
- Humayun's Tomb
- South Delhi, for the evening
Chandni Chowk and its lanes
Jahanara's avenue: the moonlit street of Shah Jahan's daughter runs straight west from the fort.
- Into the lanes: walk it early, then the silver of Dariba Kalan and the spice market of Khari Baoli.
- One morning: we plan most Old Delhi days around the fort and the bazaar together.
The Jama Masjid
Shah Jahan's great mosque: built between 1650 and 1656 on a rise just south-west of the fort.
- Etiquette: climb the eastern steps, cover your head and shoulders and leave your shoes at the gate.
- The view: from the courtyard you look straight back at the Red Fort, as the emperor intended.
Raj Ghat
What it is: the simple black stone platform where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated in 1948.
- Where: a short drive south along the old river front, in quiet lawns.
- The contrast: a moving counterpoint to the grandeur of the fort.
A food walk in the old city
- The perfect pairing: breakfast in the lanes that fed the Mughal court.
- Our route: the Old Delhi food walk, with nihari, jalebi and stuffed parathas.
Humayun's Tomb in the late afternoon
- The day's end: if you start early at the fort, finish at Humayun's Tomb in the last light.
- Bookends: it is where the Mughal story in Delhi began, and where Bahadur Shah Zafar's ended.
Where to stay for a Red Fort morning
The Imperial: our first choice for an Old Delhi day, central, historic and calm, with a usually short early-morning drive.
The right mood: a 1930s hotel hung with old prints of Delhi is a fine place to return to after a morning among Mughal ruins.
- First choice
- The Imperial, Janpath
- Inside the walls
- Haveli Dharampura
- Further south
- The Oberoi, The Leela Palace
- Inside the old city: Haveli Dharampura is a restored mansion near the Jama Masjid, run as a small heritage hotel.
- Who it suits: curious travellers happy with narrow lanes and a lively neighbourhood, not those who want a pool and a garden.
- Most of our guests: stay further south, at The Oberoi, New Delhi or The Leela Palace. We simply leave a little earlier.
- Compare every option: our guide to luxury hotels in Delhi.
What we tell our own family before they go
Read a little first: ten minutes on Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and 1857 turns the visit from a walk into a story.
Delhi's oldest trick: ignore anyone at the gate who says the fort is closed and offers something better.
- Read
- Ten minutes on Shah Jahan and 1857
- Pair
- The fort and the bazaar
- Evening
- Humayun's Tomb, not the same morning
- Around 15 August
- Ask us about access
- Don't do it all at once: pick the fort and the bazaar, rest after lunch, and leave Humayun's Tomb for the evening.
- Check the air: in November and December, the night before, and be ready to swap days. A clear morning is worth waiting for.
- Around 15 August: the fort closes to visitors for several days of rehearsals and security.
- Agra makes more sense after: the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort are easier to understand once you have seen the Red Fort.
- Look for Rajasthan in the stone: the marble came from Makrana and the sandstone from the edge of our state.
- Rajasthan's hands: some of the carvers belonged to families whose descendants still work stone in Rajasthan today.
