City Monument – The Mosque’s Minar, Jama Masjid
Top of the world.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Pigeons have it lucky.
They can simply soar upwards to easily mount the imposing dome of Jama Masjid—to take in a panoramic view of not only the Walled City but also a big portion of sprawling Delhi.
But you and I can go even higher than merely the dome with a ticketed entry to the more than 100 ft high southern minaret closest to Gate 1.
Beware, the steps are steep, but it’s worth it. At the top you discover a 360 degree view of Old Delhi and beyond in all its splendour and ugliness.
On this clear afternoon the Red Fort ramparts are shimmering through a mist of smog, while modern buildings of various levels of elegance fill up your visual canvas.
Immediate scenes are, if anything, even more striking. There’s the serenity of the mosque courtyard, on the one hand, contrasting with the teeming commerce at Urdu Bazaar. While all the good folk on the streets look like Lilliputian figures in Gulliver’s Travels.
Your view of the city from this height is also the closest anyone can get to a physical comparison of 17th Century vs 21st Century architecture.
Try turning up on a sunny afternoon when, atop the tower, you can see its magnificent shadow on the stone floor of the mosque. The scene is then literally out of this world.
The ticket to tower costs 50 rupees and its open daily from 9 am to 12 noon, and from 1.30 pm to 5 pm.
Vertical limits
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Thanks a lot Mayan not only for this post but for all the previous ones, sharing with us your love for Delhi.
I am so far and I cannot reach the place where my heart found the real Love twenty years ago. Thank you for helping me remind I am a part of it even in exile.