Qutub Minar

Qutub Minar was founded in AD 1199 by Qutbu'd-Din Aibak, who built its first storey, with three further storeys added by his successor Shamsu'd-Din Iltutmish (r. AD 1211-36). Later repairs were carried out by Firuz Shah Tughlaq (AD 1351-88), Sikandar Lodi (AD 1489-1517) and, in the colonial period, by Major R. Smith in 1829. Built of red and buff sandstone, the tower tapers from a base diameter of 14.32 metres to 2.75 metres at the top, rising to a height of 72.5 metres, and is decorated with projecting balconies carried on honeycomb-patterned stone brackets. The minaret stands within a wider complex of monuments that together form the UNESCO World Heritage Site. These include the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque of AD 1198, built using material from twenty-seven demolished Hindu and Jaina temples; the fourth-century iron pillar bearing a Sanskrit inscription; the red sandstone tomb of Iltutmish (AD 1235), decorated with geometric and arabesque patterns; the Ala'i-Darwaza gateway of AD 1311; and the unfinished Ala'i Minar, of which only a 25-metre first storey was ever built. Qutb Minar and its Monuments was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the complex remains under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India.

Powered by Froala Editor