Khooni Darwaza, the Bloody Gate

This lonely gate, now marooned in traffic, bears one of the most unsettling names in Delhi: Khooni Darwaza, "the bloody gate". It was built by the Afghan sultan Sher Shah Suri around the 1540s, when this was the northern exit from his city. Its original name was quite different: Kabuli Darwaza, or Lal Darwaza.

122 September 1857

What's documented is chilling. After Delhi fell during the uprising of 1857, the British officer Major William Hodson captured the emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. The next day he secured the surrender of three princes at Humayun's Tomb: the emperor's sons Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizr Sultan, and his grandson Mirza Abu Bakr. On the way back to the city a crowd surrounded the escort beside this gate. Hodson ordered the three to get down, stripped them of their weapons and shot them dead. Their bodies were put on display in front of the kotwali on Chandni Chowk.

2Older blood

Tradition credits the gate with other deaths. It's said that Jahangir had two sons of Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan executed here, and that Aurangzeb displayed the head of his brother Dara Shikoh on it. But the name "bloody gate" appears in no document earlier than 1857.

Sometimes a legend grows backwards: the name comes late and goes looking for old crimes to justify it.

3What to look for

• The three storeys of small galleries inside the arch.
• The mix of stones, grey quartzite and red sandstone.
• The fence that now keeps visitors out.