New Delhi day one & Humayun’s Tomb

India’s Golden Triangle starts for most travellers in New Delhi, before they continue to the Taj Mahal in Agra and Amber Fort in Jaipur.

And many will arrive very early in the morning in New Delhi on a Singapore Airlines flight. Their first flight will have left Perth at teatime the day before and connected in the night at Changi Airport.

For most of us, that will have meant little or poor sleep. (I’m still so envious of those who can completely repose in an economy seat.)

It takes perhaps only half an hour to transfer to a hotel, and then it’s breakfast and (if we’re lucky, or have paid for the extra time) a very early check-in.

Some may want to rest, but here we are in India, and surely everyone wants to make the best use of our first day.

My first gentle stroll is at Humayun’s Tomb — a grand mausoleum clad in red sandstone with white and black inlaid marble borders, and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It is a dramatic example of Mughal architecture, the first “garden tomb” built on the Indian subcontinent and the blueprint of an architectural style that would culminate in the Taj Mahal being built in Agra 80 years later.

Locals come to Humayun’s Tomb to walk and sit in the shade of its big trees. To chat and court. To read and to relax.

And visitors from all over India come, dressed up in bright saris, posing for selfies, and asking other visitors to join them in pictures.

It’s a colourful, cultural scene.

Work on Humayun’s Tomb began in 1565 and was completed in 1572. It was built by Empress Bega Begum for the deceased Emperor Humayun, father of Emperor Akbar. She was Humayun’s first wife and chief consort.

The mausoleum, finished 16 years after Humayun’s death, is an enduring symbol of her mourning.

It is set on a high terrace and is technically octangular — though there are four long sides with chamfered edges or corners. The dome above is 42m high and clad in marble and, inside, the chamber has a vaulted roof.

The building was designed by Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas, and Indian and Persian craftsmen worked together to build the mausoleum in a complex covering 27ha. The elegant building is framed by symmetrical gardens which are a good example of Charbagh — the Islamic garden with four quadrants which represent the four rivers of paradise described in the Koran.

Pools joined the channels — and during my visit in June, I am so pleased to see water running again down channels in the gardens.

Flowing water was a vital element of the Charbagh and, after research by the Archaeological Survey of India, a team under the Aga Khan Trust for Culture worked to restore flowing water into the garden.

Apart from Humayun’s Tomb, there are other 16th-century Mughal garden tombs — Nila Gumbad, Isa Khan, Bu Halima, Afsarwala, Barber’s Tomb — and Arab Serai, the complex where the craftsmen working on Humayun’s Tomb lived. It has a big arched entrance with huge wooden doors.

+ Humayun’s Tomb is on Mathura Road, opposite Dargah Nizamuddin, and open every day from 6am to 6pm. Entry is $9.20 (600 Indian rupees) for international visitors.

ANOTHER DAY ONE TIP

Visiting the National Museum in New Delhi can also be a nice, grounding and inside start (I often take our groups there on their first day, as a gentle outing). The museum has more than 200,000 objects spanning over 5000 years of Indian history and culture — and is well organised to explain this easily. The first groundwork for the museum was prepared by the Maurice Gwyer Committee in May 1946 and an Exhibition of Indian Art, with items from many museums of India, was held in London over the winter of 1947. The idea was that it would all then be shown in New Delhi, before the artefacts went back to their homes. This exhibition was staged in the president’s residence (the Rashtrapati Bhawan) in New Delhi in 1949, which was fundamentally the moment of creation of the National Museum. India’s first president, the great Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundation stone in the present Rashtrapati Bhawan building, where the museum is still housed, in 1955.

+ The museum is in the Janpath area of New Delhi and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm (exception on national holidays). Entry is $10 (650 Indian rupees) for international visitors. nationalmuseumindia.gov.in/en