Qutub Minar and its Monuments

Construction of the Qutub Minar began in 1193 under Qutb-ud-din Aibak, the first sultan of Delhi, to commemorate the establishment of Muslim rule in northern India, and continued under his successors Iltutmish and Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who added and repaired the upper storeys after lightning damage. The finished tower rises 72.5 metres in five tapering storeys of fluted red sandstone and marble, carved with bands of Quranic inscription, and stands on the site of Lal Kot, the earlier Rajput citadel of Delhi. At its base, the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, begun in the same year, was built partly from the columns and materials of demolished Hindu and Jain temples, and its carved pillars still show earlier figurative and floral motifs beneath the Islamic arcading added later. The Alai Darwaza, a domed gateway completed in 1311 by Alauddin Khalji, introduced true arches and dome construction to Delhi and is considered one of the finest examples of early Indo-Islamic decorative stonework. Nearby stands the unfinished Alai Minar, intended by Alauddin Khalji to double the height of the Qutub Minar but abandoned at one storey after his death, and the fourth-century Iron Pillar, cast under the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II and moved here in antiquity, remarkable for having resisted rust for over 1,600 years. The complex is presented as an open archaeological park, and visitors move freely among the ruins with explanatory signage at each major structure; the tower itself has been closed to climbing since a 1981 stampede.