Seeing something again...for the first time

I've done quite a bit of touring around Delhi so now when people come to visit me it is pretty rare that we actually see something in the city that is new to me. Luckily I really like showing people around the city and re-visiting places...otherwise I'd be a pretty miserable travel buddy. But every once in a while when I go somewhere I've been before I discover something new (or rather, new to me).

This happened on our first full day of sightseeing in Delhi; we went to Humayun's Tomb. This is a very large tomb in Delhi. I visited it over a year ago and hadn't been back but really enjoyed it because not only is it very pretty it is also not that popular of a spot for tourists so is relatively quiet. It is actually a really huge tomb; I think second only in size to the Taj Mahal in India and if it weren't for the Taj it would likely be visited more, but because of the Taj most people skip out on Humayun's Tomb. After a morning in the craziness of Old Delhi it was good to be somewhere a bit quieter.

So, what was new? Well the first time I went I noticed this much smaller tomb in an enclosed area off to one side but it was blocked off for some reason. This time it was open so we went in to explore and it was soooo pretty. There are lots of small tombs all throughout Delhi from the period of the Mughal rulers; most of which originally had quite a bit of decoration which has now come off, but a lot of the detail on this one was fairly well preserved...and it was built in 1547 - almost 500 years ago.

I think we actually spent more time walking around this little tomb than we did at Humayun's. There are only 2 other octagonal tombs I've seen in India; the rest are mostly 4-sided (like the Taj) and I really like the octagonal ones; even when they are small they seem very imposing.

Here are two photos; one of the whole tomb and one of some of the detail where you can see the tiling still in place...quite a rarity. I think that this might become another spot in Delhi that I start to visit more and more often for a nice Sunday afternoon walk.