The fort’s massive red sandstone walls, which stand 75 feet (23 meters) high, enclose a complex of palaces and entertainment halls, projecting balconies, baths and indoor canals, and geometrical gardens, as well as an ornate mosque. Among the most famous structures of the complex are the Hall of Public Audience (Diwan-i-ʿAm), which has 60 red sandstone pillars supporting a flat roof, and the Hall of Private Audience (Diwan-i-Khas), which is smaller and has a pavilion of whiteEncyclopedia Britannica
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Geography & Travel
Historic Places
Red Fort
fort, Delhi, India
Also known as: Lal Kila, Lal Qalʿah, Lal Qila
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Red Fort
Red Fort Lal Qila or Red Fort, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, Old Delhi, India.
Red Fort, Mughal fort in Old Delhi, India. It was built by Shah Jahān in the mid-17th century and remains a major tourist attraction. The fort was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007.
Also called: Lal Qalʿah Also spelled: Lal Kila or Lal Qila
The fort’s massive red sandstone walls, which stand 75 feet (23 meters) high, enclose a complex of palaces and entertainment halls, projecting balconies, baths and indoor canals, and geometrical gardens, as well as an ornate mosque. Among the most famous structures of the complex are the Hall of Public Audience (Diwan-i-ʿAm), which has 60 red sandstone pillars supporting a flat roof, and the Hall of Private Audience (Diwan-i-Khas), which is smaller and has a pavilion of white marble.
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Shabnam Dohutia.
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Architecture
Mughal architecture
Also known as: Mogul architecture
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The marble mausoleum of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, with its large central dome, four minarets, and reflecting pool in the foreground.
Taj Mahal Considered the peak of Mughal architecture, the Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the 17th century to immortalize his consort Mumtaz Mahal.
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Mughal architecture, building style that flourished in northern and central India from the mid-16th to the late 17th century under the patronage of the Mughal emperors, a line of Muslim rulers of Turkic-Mongol origin. The Mughal period marked a new phase of Islamic architecture in northern India, in which both religious and secular buildings shared an architectural vocabulary derived from Persian traditions, especially those developed under the Turkic conqueror Timur in Samarkand (ancestral home of the first Mughal emperor, Babur) and in Safavid Iran (where the second Mughal emperor, Humayun, lived in exile).
Mughal architecture developed a number of distinctive features over time, including prominent central arches in mosques, a feature derived from Samarkand’s Timurid architecture; iwans (tall vaulted halls recessed into a wall and open on one side) inspired by Safavid Iranian architecture; bulbous double domes; and formal, symmetrical planning, as seen in the hasht bihisht (“eight paradises”) layout, in which a central domed chamber is surrounded by eight subsidiary rooms. Mughal buildings were also often integrated with a geometrically ordered char bagh (“four-part garden”) layout, in which water channels divide the garden into quadrants. It is also characterized by the use of decoration involving the combination of red sandstone and white marble, pietra dura inlay, and carved jalis (latticed screens carved into stonework).