One day in DelhiTwo Delhis in one day
Start early with the route «New Delhi highlights»: India Gate in soft light, Agrasen ki Baoli, Connaught Place, Jantar Mantar and the pool of Bangla Sahib. It is 4.5 km, so if the heat bites, take a tuk-tuk for the long stretch to Agrasen. Then take the metro to Chandni Chowk for parathas in Paranthe Wali Gali. In the afternoon, the «Shahjahanabad» route, from the Jama Masjid to the Red Fort and Fatehpuri Mosque. As the sun sets, «Djinns, bloody gates and a lost sultana», and a hot jalebi for dessert.
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Morning
New Delhi highlights: from India Gate to the pool of Bangla Sahib
- India GateA 42-metre triumphal arch honouring more than 70,000 Indian soldiers who died in the First World War.
- Agrasen ki BaoliA medieval stepwell hidden among tower blocks, with 108 steps leading down into silence.
- Connaught PlaceThe great white-colonnaded circus the British built to give their new capital a commercial heart.
- Jantar MantarIn 1724 an astronomer-maharaja built giant stone instruments here to measure the sky with the naked eye.
- Gurdwara Bangla SahibThe bungalow of a raja where the Sikhs' child Guru died in 1664, now with a sacred pool and a kitchen that never closes.
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Lunch
Try Parathas from Paranthe Wali Gali at Pandit Gaya Prasad Shiv Charan. Paranthe Wali Gali, Chandni Chowk, Vieja Delhi
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Afternoon
Shahjahanabad: the city Shah Jahan drew with a ruler and marble
- Jama MasjidShah Jahan's great mosque, set on the highest hill of his city so nobody could doubt who was in charge.
- Red Fort (Lahori Gate)The fortress the Mughals ruled from, and the gate where India's prime minister speaks every 15 August.
- Lal Mandir Jain TempleOld Delhi's oldest Jain temple began, according to its own tradition, in the tent of a Mughal army officer.
- Begum Samru's Palace (Bhagirath Palace)A dancing girl from Chawri Bazar who came to command an army, turned Catholic and built herself a palace on Chandni Chowk.
- Gurdwara Sis Ganj SahibThis was the Mughal police station where Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, was beheaded in 1675.
- Fatehpuri MosqueThe mosque that closes Chandni Chowk was sold at auction after 1857 and bought back in exchange for four villages.
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Early evening
Djinns, bloody gates and a lost sultana
- Feroz Shah KotlaThe ruins of a 14th-century sultan, an Ashokan pillar nobody could read for centuries and letters addressed to the djinns.
- Khooni Darwaza, the Bloody GateA 16th-century gate whose name only appears in 1857, when a British officer shot three Mughal princes here.
- Turkman GateOld Delhi's southern gate is named after a Sufi saint who lived here when all this was wilderness.
- Tomb of Razia SultanA tiny courtyard in a back lane may hold the only woman who ever reigned as sultan of Delhi.
- Jama Masjid: relics and a legendary cupThe mosque is named after a mythical cup that showed the whole world, and it keeps relics attributed to the Prophet.
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Dinner
Try Jalebi at Old Famous Jalebi Wala. Esquina de Dariba Kalan con Chandni Chowk, Vieja Delhi