12 monuments for 12 months.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Here’s to 2026 with a Delhi classic. Aligned with the months of the year, visit these 12 monuments nestled within the world-famous Lodhi Garden. Ideally, one monument per month, from January to December.
1. Visit Emperor Sikander Lodhi’s tomb. Hidden behind a rugged stone wall, a discreet gateway opens into a spacious garden, at the centre of which stands the octagonal monument.
2. Visit Sheesh Gumbad. The monument’s dome, aka gumbad, was originally adorned with blue enamelled tiles; hence its name, meaning “glazed dome”. The stone chamber is littered with graves, their identities lost to history.
3. Visit the Bara Gumbad. Try exploring the domed edifice at twilight. The gold glow of Delhi’s smoggy sky streams into the empty chamber, playfully entwining with the elongated shadows of visitors.
4. Visit the unnamed mosque on the west side of Bada Gumbad. On entering the three-domed monument, crane your neck to admire the inner walls of the domes, where the stones are sculpted into intricate designs. The lower parts are scooped into dozens of niched taaks, each patterned with flowers and leaves. The arches are adorned with delicate calligraphy.
5. Visit Mehman Khana hall. Is it a hall, or a pavilion? Whatever it is, the monument flanks the other side of Bada Gumbad. Its elegance lies in minimalism. It is utterly bare, and feels complete only during full moon evenings, when the moonlight attempts to compensate for its simplicity.
6. Visit Emperor Muhammad Shah Sayyid’s tomb. Delhi’s only octagonal tomb without a walled compound, it has a circular corridor where lamplights cast mystical shadows in the post-sunset hours. The tomb is encircled by royal palms.
7. Visit the rarely visited remains of an unnamed mosque. Nestled amid a bamboo grove, the stone edifice glows ochre-red even on overcast days.
8. Visit the small graveyard beside the track leading to KK Birla Lane. Rarely frequented by humans, it is popular with squirrels. Only three graves survive. Snakes have been spotted here.
9. Visit the Athpula bridge. One of the few surviving monuments built in Delhi during Mughal emperor Akbar’s reign, it resembles a Roman aqueduct. The bridge’s seven arches overlook a duck-filled pond.
10. Visit an unnamed gateway. The garden’s only other Mughal-era relic, this two-storey portal once marked the entrance to a garden that no longer exists. Today, it overlooks Lodhi Garden’s rose hedges.
11. Visit the small stone mosque beside the aforementioned gateway. It is tiny, comprising of three domes corresponding to three arches. The decorative electric lamps that are turned on every evening dramatically enhance its visual charm (see photo).
12. Visit the domed turret near the park gate that goes out into Joseph Stein Lane. The surviving fragment of a stone enclosure that no longer exists, it is the only Lodhi Garden monument that has never been profiled by The Delhi Walla. This year, its turn!