Qutb complex

Interesting facts

Phosphorus-rich iron lets a protective film form on the iron pillar, and in some 1,600 years that film has grown only about a twentieth of a millimetre thick.

A deep dent about four metres up the iron pillar was made by a cannonball fired at close range, most likely on Nadir Shah's orders during his 1739 invasion.

The iron pillar was made by forge-welding pieces of wrought iron, weighs more than six tonnes, and over a metre of its length is hidden below ground.

Its inscription says it was raised as a standard of Vishnu on a hill called Vishnupada, in memory of a king named Chandra, usually identified with Chandragupta II.

After an 1803 earthquake, Major Robert Smith crowned the minar with a pillared cupola; it was removed in 1848 and now stands on the lawn as Smith's Folly.

The minar tapers to only about 2.7 metres across at the top, and it leans just over 65 cm from the vertical, which is considered safe.

The tower may be named not after its founder Aibak but after the Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, to whom Sultan Iltutmish was devoted.

Much of the work was done by local Hindu craftsmen unfamiliar with the Qur'an, so some of the Quranic inscriptions on the minar are jumbled.

In 1963 the actor Dev Anand wanted to film a song inside the minar, but cameras then could not fit its narrow stair, so a replica was built.

The minar's lowest storey is wrapped in twelve rounded and twelve angular flutes in alternating order, a pattern repeated on the two storeys above.

Why it is worth it

The Qutb complex in Mehrauli, in the south of Delhi, is where the architecture of the Delhi Sultanate begins. Its centrepiece, the Qutb Minar, was started by Qutb-ud-din Aibak after the Ghurid victory over Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192; Aibak finished only the first storey, his successor Iltutmish added three more, and after lightning struck the tower in 1368 Firoz Shah Tughlaq rebuilt the top as two storeys faced with white marble. The result, 72.5 metres high and tapering from 14.3 metres across at the base, is the tallest brick minaret in the world, with fluted and angular flanges that make its shaft look like a bundle of reeds and bands of carved Quranic inscription running around each level.

At its foot stands the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, the first mosque built in Delhi after the conquest, begun in 1193 inside the captured Rajput citadel. Its inscriptions record that it was assembled from the material of 27 Hindu and Jain temples, and many columns of its colonnades are reused temple pillars that still carry Hindu carving. In the courtyard stands the iron pillar, over 7 metres tall and weighing more than six tonnes, with a Sanskrit inscription in Brahmi script from the fourth century AD; it is believed to have been brought here from elsewhere, and its near absence of rust has made it a famous metallurgical puzzle.

Later sultans kept adding. The Alai Darwaza, a domed gateway built by Alauddin Khalji in 1311 in red sandstone inlaid with white marble, is counted as the earliest building in India with true arches and a true dome. Behind the mosque lie the remains of Alauddin's madrasa and tomb, and nearby is the tomb of Iltutmish, whose chamber has lost its dome but keeps richly carved walls. Most striking of all is the Alai Minar: Alauddin planned a second tower twice the diameter of the Qutb Minar, but work stopped after his death in 1316, leaving a rubble core about 25 metres high.

The minar itself cannot be climbed; entry to the tower has been closed since an accident in 1981, and visitors see it from the grounds. The Archaeological Survey of India manages the complex, and the adjoining Mehrauli Archaeological Park, with dozens of further tombs and ruins, makes a good continuation on foot.

Getting there

The complex is in Mehrauli, in south Delhi. Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) is about 10 km away. The nearest Delhi Metro stop is Qutab Minar station on the Yellow Line, roughly a 10- to 15-minute walk or a short auto-rickshaw ride from the entrance.

From the encyclopaedia

The Qutb Minar complex are monuments and buildings from the Delhi Sultanate at Mehrauli in Delhi, India. Construction of the Qutub Minar "victory tower" in the complex, named after the religious figure Sufi Saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, was begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who later became the first Sultan of Delhi of the Mamluk dynasty. It was continued by his successor Iltutmish, and finally completed much later by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, a Sultan of Delhi from the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1412) in 1368 AD. The Qubbat-ul-Islam Mosque, later corrupted into Quwwat-ul Islam, stands next to the Qutb Minar. The Qutub Minar also bears numerous inscriptions in Arabic and Nagari characters at various locations, which reveal its history.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Qutb complex

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia