Mystery, magic, mayhem. Welcome to Delhi, City of Djinns, and 25 million people. Like an eastern Rome, India’s capital is littered with the relics of lost empires. A succession of armies stormed across the Indo-Gangetic plain and imprinted their identity onto the vanquished city, before vanishing into rubble and ruin like the conquerors who preceded them. Modern Delhi is a chaotic tapestry of medieval fortifications, Mughal mausoleums, dusty bazaars, colonial-era town planning, and mega malls. Travellers sometimes leave Delhi underwhelmed, after ticking off the sights and tussling with the touts. But give the city a chance and you might fall in love. It’s often the lesser-known corners that are most rewarding, such as Lodi Gardens at dusk, the qawwali (Islamic devotional singing) at Nizamuddin or the great fort of Purana Qila. A recommended way to glimpse beneath the surface is to take one of the city’s tours, from a former street child’s view of Old Delhi to a cycle tour along the Yamuna.
Navigating Delhi’s seven cities (or 12, if you include British-built New Delhi and the satellite cities of Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon) is made infinitely easier by its gleaming, cheap and efficient metro.