If you are on a tour package to Delhi, one of the places you can not miss to see is Humayun’s Tomb.

Humayun’s Tomb is the first of many Mughal dynasty tombs that were built in India during four centuries of their rule. The tomb represents the landmark in evolution of the Mughal architectural style. It is on the list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1993.

History of Humayun’s Tomb

Humayun was the son of Babur, the first Mughal Emperor in India. He succeeded his father and ruled over Delhi Sultanate for a decade when he was defeated my Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri. With a help of Persian Shah, Humayun managed to recover Delhi, but he did not enjoy his victory for a long time – less then a year later, in 1556, he fell from the stairs in his own library and died.

At first, Humayun was buried in his palace in Delhi. His wife, Hamida Banu Begum ordered the construction of his tomb. She hired famous Persian architect, Mirak Mirza Ghiyath and he designed the first garden tomb in India for late Emperor. Construction started in 1565 and it was finished in 1572, sixteen years after his death.

Architectural design of Humayun’s Tomb

The significance of Humayun’s Tomb lies in the fact that this was the first garden-tomb in India. Garden tombs were typical for Persian architecture but they were never seen before in this part of the world.

The tomb is placed in the centre of 30 acres large garden, Char Bagh, which means Four Gardens. The Garden itself has been designed in a standard Persian way – it was divided in four large squares by four walkways and two central water canals. Water canals look like they disappear in front of the building but they reappear again on the back side, like the rivers that flow under the Paradise Garden in Quran. Four Squares were then divided into smaller ones so at the end, Garden consisted of 36 squares. Later Mughal gardens were also designed this way.

Humayun’s Tomb was made of red sandstone and white marble, which were also widely accepted materials for later buildings. It is 47 meters high, 91 wide with big, white central dome, surrounded with chhatris (elevated pavilions that look like dome) and small minarets. Dome and minarets were symbol of Islamic architectural style, but chhatris were very popular in Indian architecture – which means that constructor wanted to blend the most beautiful elements of each.

The tomb has two entrances – on the south and the west side. In the east and north sides there are a pavilion and a bath. Under the central dome is a burial chamber with a cenotaph. However, the real burial chamber is actually in the basement, below the cenotaph and can be reached only through passages that are outside the building itself. These passages are rarely open for tourists. On diagonal sides of the chamber there are corner-chambers, for members of the royal family, as this tomb was designed as a family mausoleum. In total, there are 124 small chambers inside the tomb, and around 100 of them contain cenotaphs. But there are no names on them, so it is not certain what members of the family were buried here, but it is sure that Hamida Begum, Humayun’s wife, Akbar's mother, Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan's son and Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal Emperor - were among them.

Other monuments inside the Humayun’s complex

On the south-east corner of the garden Barber’s Tomb was built during 1590. There are no inscriptions whatsoever that can tell us who was actually buried inside, so the local people started to call it Barber’s Tomb.

Tomb and Mosque that belong to Isa Khan can also be seen inside the complex, although they don’t belong to a Mughal dynasty member. Isa Khan was an Afghan noble who was fighting against Mughals and his tomb was built twenty years before Humayun’s.

Tourists can also visit: Bu Halima's Tomb and Garden, Afsarwala Tomb and mosque, Arab Sarai, Nila Gumbad and Chillah Nizamuddin Aulia, all belonging to this complex.

Make a Humayun’s Tomb part of your Delhi travel itinerary and explore the place that served as an inspiration to the famous Shah Jahan when he was building his Taj Mahal.