The British redesigned Delhi as an imperial capital between 1911 and 1931, and the geometry of it is still breathtaking. Your driver takes you along the great ceremonial axis of Rajpath — now renamed Kartavya Path — past the landmark monuments of modern Indian statehood.

India Gate stands at the eastern end: a 42-metre war memorial honouring the 84,000 Indian soldiers who died serving in the First World War. In the evening, when the eternal flame burns and the monument is lit, it is among the most moving sights in the capital. You’ll see it by day on this tour — your guide will describe what it looks like after dark.

The slow drive west passes Parliament House, India’s bicameral legislature designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, and Rashtrapati Bhavan — the President’s residence, the largest residence of any head of state in the world at 340 rooms across a 130-hectare estate. The Mughal Gardens within (now Amrit Udyan) are open seasonally to the public and worth asking your guide about.

Teen Murti Bhawan, once the official residence of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is now a museum and memorial — a quieter, less-visited site that gives genuine insight into the formative years of independent India.

Jantar Mantar, constructed by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur in 1724, is one of five astronomical observatories he built across India. Its 13 architectural instruments — enormous geometric structures built to measure time, predict eclipses, and track celestial positions with naked-eye precision — remain fully functional and are among the most unusual architectural achievements in Delhi. Your guide explains what each instrument does and how they were used.

🏰 Early Evening — Humayun’s Tomb & Qutub Minar

Humayun’s Tomb was the first garden tomb in the Indian subcontinent — built in 1570 by Empress Bega Begum for her husband, the Mughal Emperor Humayun. Its double dome, its char bagh (four-quartered garden) layout, its red sandstone and white marble construction — it established every architectural principle that would culminate, 82 years later, in the Taj Mahal. UNESCO recognises it as a World Heritage Site, and rightly so. It’s one of the most beautiful and underappreciated monuments in India.

A short drive south reaches Qutub Minar — at 73 metres, the tallest brick minaret in the world, and India’s oldest surviving example of Indo-Islamic architecture. Construction began in 1193 under Qutub-ud-din Aibak, founder of the Delhi Sultanate, and was completed by his successors. The Qutb complex around it contains the Iron Pillar of Delhi — a 7-metre tall metallurgical mystery that has stood rust-free for 1,600 years — and the ruins of India’s first mosque, the Quwwat-ul-Islam.