QUTAB Complex

Recently on my visit to the Capital, I had over an hour at my own disposal and Kutab Minar seemed to be the natural choice to spend time with, on my way towards the airport.

Qutab Minar is the tallest minaret in India made of red sandstone and marble. It is 72.5 metres (237.8 ft) high and has 379 stairs inside which reaches the top. It has a base diameter of 14.3 metres which narrows to 2.7 metres at the top storey. Construction was started in 1192 by Qutub-ud-din Aibak and was completed by Iltutmish. 

Kutab Minar pictures. some in black/white and some in colour.

It is so normal to look upwards towards these rising monuments as one walks around them and probably the first thoughts must be how did they manage to build these in that era !



This is how it looks as you look up ...



A classic view of the Minar that we see often in pictures . . .

The Iron Pillar located in Delhi (seen below along with the Qutab Minar), in the Qutub complex is another of the attractions notable for the corrosion-resistant composition of the metals used in its construction. Its origin is still not decided but said to be belonging to 'Candra' dynasty either Gupta King Candragupta II or Chandragupta Maurya based on the oldest inscription on the pillar which is in Sanskrit, written in Gupta-period Brahmi script referring to qualities of a king referred to simply as Candra.

The height of the pillar, from the top of its capital to the bottom of its base, is 23 ft 8 in (7.21 m), 3 ft 8 in (1.12 m) of which is below ground. Its bell pattern capital is 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) in height, and its bulb-shaped base is 2 ft 4 in (0.71 m) high. The base rests on a grid of iron bars soldered with lead into the upper layer of the dressed stone pavement. The pillar's lower diameter is 16.4 in (420 mm), and its upper diameter 12.05 in (306 mm). It is estimated to weigh more than six tons.

Alauddin Khilji started building another minar : Alai Minaret as a tower of victory (seen below) in the same complex when he returned in triumph from his Deccan campaign. He conceived this tower to be two times higher than Qutb Minar but the construction was however abandoned, after the completion of the 24.5-metre-high (80 ft) first-storey core; soon after death of Ala-ud-din in 1316. 

Then there are other structures within Qutub Complex and one of them seemed to be a good resting place after a walk through the complex. The exquisite stone work in this place of about 10x10 meter structure with a dome on the top leaves every one wonderstruck.

The following gallery of pillars is from another area in the complex ...

As I was coming close to my time I remembered one of the quotes that I recently came across ... 'More you exlore, more there is'

The source of information in this blog is Wikipedia and I have to say it with a lot of gratitude.

I use it very often and I am amazed that it is being run purely on the donations received. What Wikipedia is about is best explained by its founder Jimmy Wales. It  is the #5 site on the web and serves 450 million different people every month – with billions of page views. What he has to say : " When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfil our mission efficiently.