Day 2
New Delhi sightseeing tour
The second day of Golden Triangle with Bandhavgarh Tour is scheduled for sightseeing of New Delhi. After having delicious breakfast in Delhi hotel, proceed for New Delhi sightseeing tour along with Delhi tour guide. Although exceeded in population and surpassed in economic importance by both Kolkata and Mumbai, Delhi is now, as it has been for the larger part of a thousand years, the heart and nerve centre of India. In case of Delhi, happily, the rulers did not build their new cities on top of old ones, as so often has happened in the past, but chose instead sites a few miles apart. Delhi, thus, offers to the visitor monuments of Hindu, Islamic and British origin, dating from 12th to 20th centuries.
The two chief monuments are Parliament (formerly the Secretariat) and the Presidential Palace (formerly the Viceroy's House).
There is a wide avenue known as Rajpath that runs from India Gate to the Presidential Palace, where New Delhi is at its most splendid.
Qutub Minar is also a major tourist destination of Delhi, as well as India. Construction of Qutub Minar, a tower, begun in 1199 by the first
sultan, completed by his successor and partially restored in the fourteenth century. Standing 238 feet high, it is built of subtly graded sandstone and marble,
the colours ranging from dark red at the base, through shades of pink, to glowing orange at the summit. At the foot of the tower stands India's first mosque,
erected over the foundations of a Hindu temple. Two sixteenth century structures that have survived the years are the mausoleum of Humayun, erected in
his memory by his widow, and the Purana Qila, a massive fort (occupying the site of prehistoric Delhi) that contains both a mosque and a library.
Post independence structures of Lotus Temple (belonging to Bahai faith) and Akshardham Temple (belonging to Swaminarayan sect of Hindu religion) are highly
visited cultural centres with exquisite architectural specimens. After visiting New Delhi, return to Delhi hotel for overnight stay.