Mehrauli Archaeological Park
A wooded walk past a thousand years of tombs, stepwells and follies, from Balban's grave of 1287 to Metcalfe's pleasure house.
Enter from the Qutb Minar side; free and open from sunrise.
2 hrs
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Delhi
Tomar fort, Sultanate capital, Mughal Shahjahanabad and a colonial New Delhi laid out beside them — the ruins here are not scattered, they are layered.
Yamuna
1052
Lal Kot
The Tomar Rajputs wall the ridge.
1192
Sultanate
The Qutb rises on temple columns.
1648
Shahjahanabad
Shah Jahan moves the Mughal court.
1931
New Delhi
Lutyens' capital is inaugurated.
Chandni Chowk & the spice market
From the Red Fort to Fatehpuri Masjid along Shah Jahan's processional avenue, detouring into Dariba Kalan's silver shops, Kinari Bazaar and Khari Baoli, Asia's largest wholesale spice market.
Go in the morning on a weekday; Khari Baoli closes on Sundays.
3 hrs
Shahjahanabad walls walk
From Kashmere Gate to Turkman Gate, tracing what remains of the 1650s city wall and the 1857 breach the British siege left in it.
Start at Kashmere Gate, where the shell scars are still visible.
2.5 hrs
Sunder Nursery
A Mughal-era nursery restored as a 90-acre park in 2018, with sixteenth-century garden tombs, a lake and native-plant gardens.
Open daily from 7am; ticketed separately from Humayun's Tomb next door.
90 min
Lodhi Garden to Humayun's Tomb
A route of about 2.5 km linking the fifteenth-century Sayyid and Lodi tombs with Humayun's Tomb, the mausoleum that inspired the Taj Mahal.
Start early at Lodhi Garden, where the walkers and yoga groups come out at dawn.
3 hrs
Nizamuddin Basti bylanes
A 700-year-old settlement, once called Ghiyaspur, with Atgah Khan's 1566 tomb, the poet Ghalib's grave and a stepwell hidden behind the dargah's crowded lanes.
Best with a local guide from one of the community-run heritage walks.
2 hrs
Kartavya Path & India Gate
Lutyens' ceremonial avenue (Rajpath until 2022), from Rashtrapati Bhavan's gates past the secretariat blocks to the 1931 India Gate memorial.
Best at dusk when India Gate is lit. Rehearsals close it for much of January; the Republic Day parade on 26 January and the Beating Retreat on 29 January need tickets, sold online in advance.
90 min