Qutb complex
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How it came to be
After Muhammad of Ghor defeated Prithviraj Chauhan at the end of the 12th century, his viceroy Qutb ud-Din Aibak began in 1193 the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque using stone from demolished Hindu and Jain temples; UNESCO calls it the oldest mosque in northern India. Aibak also began the red sandstone Qutb Minar as a victory tower, and the Delhi sultan Iltutmish, who ruled from 1211 to 1236, added three more storeys.
The tower stands 72.5 m high, 14.32 m across at the base, and is the tallest masonry tower in India. Iltutmish's tomb of 1235 began the tradition of royal tombs. In the mosque courtyard stands an iron pillar of about 6.5 tonnes, set up by the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II in the early 5th century and moved here in the 10th century.
Alauddin Khalji enlarged the complex between 1296 and 1311, adding the Alai Darwaza gateway in 1311. His Alai Minar, planned at twice the size of the Qutb Minar, stopped at its first storey, 25 m high, when he died in 1316. After lightning struck the tower in the 14th century, Firoz Shah Tughlaq replaced its top with two storeys, and Sikandar Lodi repaired it in 1503. UNESCO listed the complex in 1993.
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