Place : Delhi

Best Time to visit : October to March

Significance: Prime Minister address on Independence day (15th August) every year.

Timings : Daily sunrise to sunset

The Red Fort or the Lal Quila, situated on the western bank of the river Yamuna forms the majestic centerpiece of Mughal Emperor Shahajahan's medieval walled city 'Shah Jahanabad' (Old Delhi). This sandstone citadel encompasses grand audience halls, marble palaces ornamented with exquisite pietra dura once embedded with precious stones, a market place where the royalty used to shop, a mosque, gardens with marbled fountains, plazas, baths etc. The Red Fort is enclosed by nearly 2 1/2 km of battlement walls which vary in height from 18.5 m (60ft) at its highest watch towers on the river side to 33m on the city side and is surrounded by a 9m deep moat. It was here, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, unfurled the Indian flag on 15 August 1947 commemorating the end of the British colonial rule. Every year on Independence day, the Prime minister addresses a huge crowd assembled in the Maidan (ground) overlooking the fort, from its Lahore gate.

Shahjahan, started the construction of this massive fort in 1638, when he shifted the capital from Agra to Delhi. The fort was completed along with the huge city of Shajahanabad after nine years on 16th April 1648. The city was laid out with wide roads, residential quarters, bazars, mosques and enclosed in a rubble built wall with 14 gates, some of which still exists. The main street was Chandni Chouk with a tree lined canal flowing down its centre and the remarkable buildings which showed off the magnificence of Mughal style architecture were the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India and the Red fort. Now Chandni Chowk is a crowded colourful market bustling with shops, craftsmen's workshops, hotels, mosques and temples.

There is a large formal garden and a row of five small palaces along the east wall of the fort, behind the Diwan-i-Am. The palaces were beautifully decorated with silver ceilings ornamented with golden flowers and crowned with gilded turrets, delicately painted and decorated with intricate pieces of mirrors. Between the garden and the palaces there was a stream flowing Nahr-i-Bihisht (Stream of Paradise) with a network of lotus shaped marble fountains. The palace on the extreme south is the Mumtaz Mahal (Palace of Jewels), now the Red Fort Museum of Archaeology, (Open daily except Fri 9am-5pm) with six apartments displaying relics from the Mughal Period including numerous paintings, weapons, textiles, carpets, ornate chess sets, hookahs and metal work.

Close to the Mumtaz Mahal is the Rang Mahal ('Palace of Colors') once elaborately painted, where the emperors main wife resided and where the emperor ate most of his meals. The stream ran through the palace and ended in the lotus shaped central pool in the marble floor originally with an ivory fountain in the center. Hundreds of small mirrors were set into the ceilings of apartments on either sides known as the Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors).