Friday, January 19, 2007

Finally, I get to see the Qutub

Entered the precincts of the Qutub Minar with not much time to spare, as my flight back to Delhi was less than two hours away. But Eric and I made the most out of it. Tried to pass Eric off as a North Easterner, but the dumbass opened his mouth and admitted he wasn't an Indian citizen, so it was the higher priced ticket for him. He didn't mind too much, though.

Took a whole lot of snaps at the Qutub, so I've posted the pics separately - this post has stuff from the surrounding ruins, the arches and the windows which were simply superb, while the later one has snaps of the tower itself. I always had the idea that the Minar was some sort of a guard tower - but I guess it' was actually meant to be a victory tower of sorts. That would explain all the intricte carvings etc.






Am completely in love with the way light filters in through the trelissed walls/ windows/ arches here - looked very ethereal, the splotches of sunbeam. :) Am I sounding like an amateur art-fart? *grins bashfully*





Loads of people milling about, but it wasn't as bad as the Taj Mahal or the Ba'Hai temple, and we even saw loads of schoolkids around. Some Pre-Republic Day Celebration trip, I suppose...


And then there was the Iron Pillar. Remember having studied about it in history class in school - dating back to the Mauryas (or was it Ashoka?), the pillar shows no signs or rust, and no one knows how.

The pillar has some inscriptions on it, and there was this neat little tablet there, which explained what it was. It was still Greek to me, though! :(


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