Delhi Guide
Mehrauli Archaeological Park
Mehrauli Archaeological Park, beside the Qutub Minar: Balban's Tomb, Jamali Kamali, Rajon Ki Baoli and Metcalfe's Folly on one free walk through Delhi's oldest quarter.
Mehrauli is the oldest continuously inhabited part of Delhi, and the archaeological park beside the Qutub Minar complex holds more than a hundred monuments spanning roughly a thousand years of the city's history.
Unlike the Qutub complex next door, the park is free to enter and little visited: a stretch of scrub woodland where footpaths link Balban's Tomb, built for a thirteenth-century Sultan of Delhi; the Jamali Kamali mosque and tomb, with some of the finest painted plasterwork of the early Mughal years; Rajon Ki Baoli, a stepwell built under the Lodis; and the follies that Sir Thomas Metcalfe, the British Resident at the Mughal court, put up around his country retreat in the nineteenth century.
Allow about two hours to walk it, ideally in the morning before the heat, and pair it with the Qutub Minar on the same visit.
5 Sights
Mehrauli Archaeological Park, One By One
Open any of them for its history, what to look for and how it fits into a day.
Good To Know
Visiting Mehrauli Archaeological Park
Is there an entry fee for Mehrauli Archaeological Park?
- No, the park is free and open to walk through. Some individual tombs, such as Jamali Kamali's, are sometimes kept locked, so your guide will check on the day.
How is it different from the Qutub Minar complex?
- The Qutub Minar complex is a separate, ticketed site next door. The archaeological park around it covers a much larger area of later tombs, mosques and stepwells, and takes longer to explore.
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