Humayun's Tomb

The tomb was commissioned after Emperor Humayun's death by his senior wife, Bega Begum (also known as Haji Begum). Delhi's South East district administration names the Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas and his son Sayyid Muhammad as its designers; construction is generally dated from about 1565 to 1572, and UNESCO notes the patronage of Humayun's son, Emperor Akbar.

UNESCO describes it as the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent and the first of the grand dynastic mausoleums of Mughal architecture. More than 150 members of the Mughal family are buried here, earning it the name 'dormitory of the Mughals'. The tomb of Isa Khan Niyazi, an Afghan noble, predates it by about twenty years. In 1857 the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, took refuge here before being captured by British forces. UNESCO inscribed the site in 1993, and conservation in partnership with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture since 1997 restored the gardens and the tomb.

The tomb sits beside the old neighbourhood of Nizamuddin, which grew up around the shrine of the 14th-century Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, close to the monument. The dargah draws devotees from across faiths, and the lanes around it are lined with stalls selling flowers, chadars and halal food. Humayun's Tomb itself is a popular place for Delhi families and photographers to stroll on winter weekends.