Crazy or Independent

My mother calls me crazy, I just call myself independent. After a nice night sleeping and dreaming of India I awoke to Ron rushing off to his meetings.  That left me alone all day, in one of the worlds most populated cities, to explore.  So I grabbed my camera and called for a car and off I went outside the hotel compound.  Okay maybe I am a little crazy - I don't speak Hindi, I have no cell phone, my iPad doesn't work here and I have no idea of where to go.  However there was one thing on the top of my to do list...BUY at least one Sari, so I told the driver to take me to a government sponsored textile outlet.  I walked out of there with two sari's, to Punjab outfits and a pair of authentic India hand made shoes.  

I then consulted my little travel bible, or book, and was off to a historical site.  I am a history lover and I love to visit ruins and learn about the past.  I chose to go to "Qutub Complex" right in the heart of OLD Delhi.


History Lesson:
The Qutub complex is an array of monuments and buildings that initially housed a complex of twenty-seven ancient Jain temples which were destroyed and their material used in the construction of the Islamic Mosque that is next to the Qutb Minar.  Qutab Minar is among the tallest and famous towers in the world. The minaret is 234 feet high and the highest individual tower in the world. Other towers in the world are the Great Pagoda in Beijing, China and the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy but these towers are not as high as the Qutab Minar in Delhi. The minar was completed in 1200 A.D and since then the tall structure has been there upright and ever beautiful keeping an eye to Delhi just like a sentry.

At the back of the complex, southwest of the mosque, stands an L-shaped construction, consisting of Alauddin Khilji's tomb dating ca 1316 AD, (bottom center photo) . Khilji was the second Sultan of Delhi from Khilji dynasty, who ruled from 1296 to 1316 AD.

It was quite an remarkable to be walking around something that has been around for almost 700 years.  It brings history to the present, and this was sure a gift for me to be here.  Call me crazy like my mother or just call me independent, I will just call myself very fortunate!

Some of my other pictures from this same site...I love my camera it is my window to the world.

Don't you just love OLD things!!