Idée #395 – Visiting the Qutb Minar and its buildings
Qûtb Minâr or Qutb Minar (“tower of the victory”) is the highest Indian minaret, and the third in the world. Qûtb Minâr, the highest tower of India, measures 72,5 m of top – 80 m originally, and contain a staircase of 379 walking allowing to reach the summit there. The diameter of the base is 14,3 m whereas that of the last floor is 2,7 m. Built in red stoneware, the last two white marble floors, he is decorated with ornamental motives and with verses written in a decorative hand of the Koran. Qûtb ud-Dîn Aibak, the first sultan of Delhi – Inaugurating a succession of several Muslim dynasties – begin the construction of Qûtb Minâr in 1192, but realizes only the first level.
His successor, Îltutmish, adds him three additional levels and, in 1368, Fîrûz Shâh Tughlûq builds the fifth and last floor. The evolution of the architectural styles of Aibak to Tuglûk is obvious when we look at the building the destination of which is not clear. Some aspire that he was built as a tower of the victory to mean the beginning of the Muslim power on India, while others see the minaret of the adjacent mosque used by muezzins for the call to prayer there. With the mosque Quwwat-ul-Islam, the grave of Iltutmish and the other buildings, he establishes one of the busiest places of interest of Delhi.
Also let us quote on the site, the present of the “iron pillar of Delhi” a pylon going back to the IVe century and set up by the raja Gupta Chandragupta II in honor of Vishnou. Top of more or less seven meters, compound of 98 % of iron, he resisted for 1 600 years the corrosion of the Indian atmosphere subjected to the monsoon! The site is registered on the list world of the heritage of the UNESCO since 1993.
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Qutb Minar, Dehli, Inde
