Humayun’s Tomb

Humayun's Tomb was commissioned in 1569 by Empress Hamida Banu Begam, widow of the Mughal emperor Humayun, fourteen years after his death, and was designed by the Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyath at a reported cost of 15 lakh rupees. Rising from a seven-metre terrace, the red sandstone mausoleum is set within a charbagh, a square garden divided into four main quarters by causeways, and is regarded as the first distinct example of proper Mughal architectural style in India, drawing heavily on Persian precedent.

At its centre sits an octagonal chamber holding the emperor's cenotaph, capped by a double dome of marble rising 42.5 metres and surrounded by pillared kiosks (chhatris). The building's blend of Persian arches and domes with Indian decorative elements established the garden-tomb tradition that would culminate, decades later, in the Taj Mahal. Several other Mughal-era graves are located within the complex, including that of Bahadur Shah Zafar's ancestors, and the last Mughal emperor himself sought shelter here with his sons during the 1857 uprising before their capture.

Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, the monument and its gardens have been the focus of a long-running conservation partnership between the Archaeological Survey of India and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture since 1997, which has restored the charbagh, water channels and surrounding structures including the Nai-ka-Gumbad (barber's tomb) on the southwestern side of the complex.