Humayun's Tomb

Humayun's Tomb was built between 1565 and 1572 by Empress Bega Begum (Hamida Banu Begum), Humayun's first wife and chief consort, in memory of her husband — the second Mughal emperor — who died in 1556 falling from his library staircase. The architect, Mirak Mirza Ghiyas, was Persian; the result is the first true charbagh garden-tomb in the Indian subcontinent, and the architectural prototype for the Taj Mahal seventy-five years later. The red sandstone-and-white marble central mausoleum sits on a 7-metre platform at the centre of a 30-acre Persian-style charbagh — four squares divided by water channels and pathways. The double-shelled bulbous central dome is the first of its kind in India. The tomb chamber holds Humayun's cenotaph (the actual grave is in a small chamber below) plus around 150 other Mughal cenotaphs — Hamida Banu, Dara Shikoh (Aurangzeb's brother and rival), and several later Mughal princes. UNESCO inscribed Humayun's Tomb in 1993. A meticulous Aga Khan Trust restoration completed in 2013 brought back the original water channels and removed concrete additions. Allow two hours including the adjoining Isa Khan's tomb and Bu Halima's garden.