The major historical attraction for today is Humayun’s Tomb, an Unesco World Heritage Site. It is where Humayun, the second Mughal emperor who had a very eventful life, was buried. He in fact lost Delhi for a period before returning with Persian help and retaking Delhi and the empire. The driver lets us near the entrance, we buy tickets and in we go. It is a long walk made a bit uncomfortable by the guides offering their services and not accepting no for an answer. However it is only a short section where the guides are waiting and we learn to avoid them or let other foreigners go first so they get attacked.
The first tomb on the way is a bit to the right from the main trail, the Isa Khan tomb. Interestingly Isa Khan tomb was built during the time that Delhi was not under Mughal control but under Sher Shah Suri who had defeated Humayun earlier and created his own empire. Quite interesting and unexpected. It is also quite a beautiful tomb with lots of detail and quite a few tombstones inside, not sure who is who.
Inside most of the decorations are gone but the ceiling is quite beautiful, we really like this style of decoration.
Nearby is a mosque related to the tomb, something quite common for the tombs from this period. The central dome is similar to Qila-i-Kuhna Mosque at Purana Qila that we visited the previous day and really liked, however overall it is a smaller mosque as you would expect.
We then return to the main path and walk with the masses of people towards Humayun’s Tomb. There are fewer tourists than at the Red Fort but significantly more than at Purana Qila but as usual at many attractions the majority are from India, which is nice and a change from any countries we visited.
As we pass the gates we keep our eyes open for birds, and seemingly they do the same as the mynas are watching us very carefully when we pass by.
We are happy when we notice a side path through the Arab Serai, the resthouse for horses, leading us to an abandoned mosque and ruins which are quite interesting to explore from afar, we decide not to enter as you have to go barefoot for some reason even though it is abandoned since forever.
In this area we find also our first special birds, first a hoopoe, a beautiful bird, and then we see a group of pelicans passing overhead. Quite beautiful even though it takes a bit for us to identify them as we assume they are Black Kites like everything else big that is flying around.
We then arrive at the last gate which holds a small museum with a nice diorama showing the whole area and giving us an ensemble view of the complex.
And then we notice Humayun’s Tomb in the distance. It has to be huge given how much we still have to go and we are looking forward to exploring it in more depth.
As we approach the Tomb becomes larger and more impressive, it is quite special and we really like the style in which it was built. It was the first large tomb built for the Mughal emperors and it became a model for all the tombs that followed including Taj Mahal. And then we are at the tomb and it is time to climb towards the tomb proper.
When we arrive on top we discover that there is only one entrance and it is not on the side we climbed. And wouldn’t you know it…it will be on the last side that we explore. Still it is a nice exploration as we find archways with parakeets and beautiful views of the surrounding area, especially another major temple nearby.
From the platform we can also see the way we came from the west gate but also glance in the other directions where the garden is not so well maintained. It must have been symmetrical and quite impressive during its heyday.
Inside we enjoy the many decorations and the labyrinth like structure of the tomb. There are many antechambers that hold additional tombs, which is quite interesting to us as we thought that only Humayun’s tomb would be in the complex. Also the decorations are a bit on the sparse side as everything precious was looted throughout the years.
In the middle is the impressive room that holds Humayun’s tomb. We asssume that it was much more decorated during its heyday but now it is mostly plain marble with the tomb in the middle.
We descend on a different side which has much better lighting of the tomb. It also has far fewer visitors for some reason so we take lots of photos before starting on our return walk.
As we pass through the quieter part of the garden we discover a few more birds including a beautiful Purple Sunbird, a lifer for us. Black Kites are not a lifer anymore but they are seemingly everywhere and we catch some good photos of one of them.
The less maintained part of the garden is actually quite nice and we take the longer and scenic hike back to the gate where we join the hordes of people exiting the tomb. We escape the tuk-tuk drivers who all want to give us a ride and get to our driver, time for our next destination, a Sikh temple.
