Hauz Khas Complex

Alauddin Khalji dug the tank around 1300 to water his new city of Siri. Half a century later Firoz Shah Tughlaq desilted it and built along its edge a madrasa — an L-shaped range of domed halls and pillared verandas stepping down to the water, one of the most important centres of learning in the Islamic world of its day. He placed his own tomb at the junction of the two wings, so that the sound of students would carry over his grave.

The complex survives with unusual completeness, and its setting is the strangest in Delhi: the medieval ruins look out over a restored lake and a deer park, while directly behind them the village of Hauz Khas has become a warren of bars, boutiques and design studios. Walking from one to the other takes ninety seconds and about six hundred years.

Hauz Khas, where the Yellow and Magenta lines meet, is about a kilometre away through the village lanes.

Limited and informal, along the village roads; it is easiest to park a little further out and walk in.

Nothing inside the monument itself, but the village around it is one of Delhi's densest café districts, visible from the ruins.

Enter through the village lane past the shops — there is no grand gateway. Sunset over the tank is the reason to come late.