Qutub Minar

The Minar is the oldest thing in Delhi that still dominates its own skyline. Qutb-ud-din Aibak laid the first storey in 1199; Iltutmish added three more; a lightning strike and a fourteenth-century repair account for the marble at the top. Each storey tapers, and each carries a different rhythm of flutes — angular, rounded, alternating — so the tower reads as five separate arguments stacked into one.

It does not stand alone. Around its base is the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, built quickly from the carved stone of temples that stood here before, so that lotus medallions and bell-and-chain motifs surface in the colonnade like a language spoken under another. In the courtyard stands the Iron Pillar, four centuries older than the mosque and famously unrusted, and to the south the Alai Darwaza, a small gateway of 1311 that is arguably the most refined single building of the Sultanate.

Qutub Minar station, Yellow Line, is about ten minutes' walk from the complex gate.

A large paid car park sits at the entrance, generally adequate outside peak weekend hours.

Nothing inside the archaeological park; a cluster of cafés and juice stalls stands just outside the gate.

Go early; the low sun rakes across the flutes and the carved bands become legible. The tower itself has been closed to climbing since 1981.