Red Fort

When Shah Jahan moved his court downriver from Agra, he did not merely build a fort — he built the ceremonial heart of a new city, Shahjahanabad. The walls run for over two kilometres in sandstone the colour of dried blood, and behind them the plan is startlingly precise: a covered bazaar leading to a drum house, then the open Hall of Public Audience, then the marble pavilions where the emperor received a smaller and far more dangerous audience.

Much of what stands today is a survivor rather than an original. The British demolished a great deal of the palace quarter after 1857 and quartered troops in what remained; the barracks are still there, oddly earnest among the pavilions. What endures is the sense of scale and of intention — the water channel called the Stream of Paradise, the inlaid Hall of Private Audience, the long axial view that pulls you from gate to throne. Since 1947 the Prime Minister has spoken from its ramparts each August.

Lal Qila, on the Violet Line, opens directly onto the approach to Lahori Gate — about as close as a station can sit to what it is named for.

A paid ASI car park sits opposite Lahori Gate, but it fills fast on weekends and holidays; the lanes of Old Delhi around it were never built for casual parking.

No food is sold inside the fort. Snack and juice stalls line the approach road outside, and Chandni Chowk's kitchens are a short walk further on.

Closed Mondays. Enter by Lahori Gate and walk the axis in order — the plan only makes sense if you follow it as a court procession would.