Delhi-dirty, loud, frustrating, poor & congested

The India Gate is the most famous landmark in Delhi, built in 1931, to honor more than 70000 soldiers killed in World War I; drivers will honk constantly even when in bumper to bumper traffic (as if that will help!)

Built starting in 1562, the tomb of Humayun (the second Mughal emperor) is considered a prototype for the Taj Mahal; it is estimated that 49% of locals live in slums while almost 22% of the people do open defecation

Swaminarayan Akshardham is the world's largest comprehensive Hindu temple (it measures 356 ft long, 316 ft wide and 141 ft high); we had to check our backpacks and no phones or cameras were allowed on the grounds

We searched for 2 days to find a place to catch the Delhi Hop On, Hop Off bus with no success; we never saw a single bus but had hoped to use the service to more easily navigate the crazy traffic here

My sense of personal space did not mesh with the habits of Indians as they insisted on squeezing up against me; this was the norm no matter where we were so wearing backpacks on the front was safer

With an estimated 2016 population of more than 35 million people, Delhi is the world's second-largest urban area; the air pollution is horrendous and there is trash everywhere

Qutub Minar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a 73 m tapering tower of five stories that was begun in 1192; the mosque complex is one of the earliest that survives in the Indian subcontinent

The Iron Pillar of Delhi is 24 ft high, weighs 13000 lbs and was constructed in 402 AD; it has attracted the attention of materials scientists because of its high resistance to corrosion

The Lotus Temple is open for prayers and meditation by people who follow any religion; the lotus symbolizes 4 religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Jainism

The Parliament House, conceived in the Imperial style, has an open verandah and 144 columns; being driven around Delhi seems like a near death experience and it's best to just not watch

This was as close to the official residence of the President of India as we could get; with 340 rooms covering 5 acres on an estate of 330 acres, it is one of the largest residences of any head of state in the world

When Humayun died in 1556, his wife was so distraught over her husband's death that she dedicated her life thenceforth to a sole purpose: the construction of the most magnificent mausoleum in the Empire

I mistakenly thought most Indians would speak English but that was definitely not the case; even when locals could speak some English it was extremely difficult to understand them

The Red Fort was plundered of its artwork and jewels during Nadir Shah's invasion of the Mughal Empire in 1747; most of the fort's precious marble structures were subsequently destroyed by the British following the Revolt of 1857

The Pearl Mosque (1659) at the Red Fort is a small, three-domed structure carved in white marble, with a three-arched screen leading down to the courtyard; it is no longer open to the public

The Hall of Public Audience at the Red Fort, built completely of marble, had a platform for the emperor's throne; we paid a little extra to get the helpful audioguide here

The residence of the sultan's main wife at the Red Fort; the Fort has an area of 255 acres enclosed by 1.5 miles of defensive walls,punctuated by turrets and bastions and varying in height from 59 ft on the river side to 108 ft on the city side

The Hall of Private Audience at the Red Fort is built completely of marble; this is where the emperor received special visitors; stray dogs were everywhere in Delhi

We stayed at a modern hotel near Indira Gandhi Intl Airport (48 million passengers per year); the subway was clean and inexpensive but stops were not always near tourist sights

This structure (1842) at the Red Fort stands in the middle of a pre-existing water tank; made out of red sandstone, which was cheaper than white marble, it originally had a red sandstone bridge, which was probably lost after the Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Red Fort was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (who also built the Taj Mahal) as his ruling palace in 1648; it is in the center of Delhi and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Security is tight everywhere in Delhi with metal detectors and pat downs required at sights, metro stations and hotels; the Red Fort was the scene of a terrorist attack in 2000 that killed 3 people

Qutub Minar served as the pit stop of the second leg of the second series of The Amazing Race Australia; on December 4, 1981, the staircase lighting failed with between 300 and 430 visitors stampeding towards the exit, and 47 were killed

Qutub Minar; Jonathan and I stood out as two of only a handful of Caucasians in Delhi and were constantly harassed by tuk-tuk drivers, beggars and scam artists

Alāʾ ud-Dīn Khaljī was the second and most powerful ruler of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1296-1316; he set out to build a tower twice as high as Qutub Minar but he died after only 24.5 m was built

The Alai Darwaza, built in 1311, is the main gateway from the southern side of Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque (Delhi's first and grandest); this is the first building in India to employ Islamic architecture principles in its construction and ornamentation

The Lahore Gate of the Red Fort, the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal dynasty for nearly 200 years, until 1856

The tomb of Iza Khan was built 20 years before that of Humayun; the complex is one of the three UNESCO World Heritage SItes in Delhi

India's version of the National Mall with the India Gate where the Washington Monument is and the President's residence where the US Capitol is; we thought the pollution was bad but it gets much worse in the winter

Jonathan is laughing at the thought that he would like visiting India; this pool is on their national mall but behind me are men doing their laundry in it

Raisina Hill houses India's most important government buildings which were constructed by the British in the 1910s after the capital was moved to Delhi from Calcutta; I suspect the British are glad to have left

One of two gateways to the tomb of Humayun; significant restoration work of the complex occurred from 1997-2003 and, when illuminated at night, the monument looks truly magnificent

Every year on Indian Independence Day (15 August), the Prime Minister hoists the Indian tricolor flag at the main gate of the Red Fort and delivers a nationally broadcast speech from its ramparts

Entrance to Qutub Minar is 15 rupees for Indians but 500 rupees for foreigners; the one good thing is that the ticket lines were separate and the foreigner line had no wait