Tughluqabad
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Tughluqabad is the third city of Delhi, India founded by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq in 1321. The city was built in just three years and was abandoned by 1327. The site on top of a large granite outcrop was strategically chosen by Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq for its formidable view while he was still serving as a general under his predecessor Allah al-Din Khilji.
Tughluqabad still consists of remarkable, massive stone fortifications that surround the irregular ground plan of the city. The sloping rubble-filled city walls, a typical feature of monuments of the Tughluq dynasty, are in-between 10 and 15 m high, topped by battlemented parapets and strengthened by circular bastions of up to two stories height. The city is supposed to once have had as many as 52 gates of which only 13 remain today. The fortified city contained seven rainwater tanks.
Tughluqabad is divided into three parts;
- 1) the wider city area with houses built along a rectangular grid between its gates
- 2) the citadel with a tower at its highest point know as Bijai-Mandal and the remains of several halls and a long underground passage
- 3) the adjacent palace area containing the royal residences. A long underground passage below the tower still remains.
Most of the area of the city is nowadays inaccessible due to dense thorny vegetation. An ever increasing part of the former city area is occupied by modern settlement, especially in the vicinity of its lakes.
South of Tughluqabad was a vast artificial water reservoir with the fortified outpost of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq's Tomb. This well preserved mausoleum remains connected to the fort by an elevated causeway until today.
Well visible to the South-East are the remains of the Fortress of 'Adilabad, built in similar style a little later.
