Humayun’s Tomb
Humayun, the second Mughal Emperor, died in 1556, but it wasn’t until 1564 that construction began on his magnificent tomb. Designed and built by Haji Begum (Humayun’s senior wife and mother of his son and successor Akbar) the tomb took the best part of nine years to complete and provided the architectural blueprint for subsequent Mughal monuments, including the most famous of them all…..the Taj Mahal.
We had absolutely no idea what to expect when we visited this site, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of our time in Delhi…..an oasis of calm and tranquility amidst the chaos of the surrounding city.
The observant amongst you will notice that there are in fact two tombs represented by the photographs above. The first six are of Humayun’s tomb, but the last two are of the earlier Isa Khan’s tomb, built between 1547-48. Part of the Humayun tomb complex (hence why I’ve included them in the same post) Isa Khan’s resting place may only be a couple of decades earlier, but it’s a world away in design and scale.
© Mark Simms Photography (2014)
Mark Simms Photography 
11 Responses to “Humayun’s Tomb”
Stunning symmetry!
Yeah…..they really knew how to build those Mughal Emperors 😊
They certainly did!
Beautiful! I love the viewpoint in the picture I’ve given an extra like Mark!
Thanks Adrian…..it’s easy to fall into traditional holiday snap mode, so I was constantly looking for something a little different.
The architecture is just amazing!
It’s pretty stunning 😊
poetic!! These are beautiful!
Thanks Cyb 😊
Lovely pictures Mark. If it wasn’t for the architecture it would be hard to believe those were in India with so few people about! Your symmetrical compositions in the first of both tombs really emphasises the tranquility.
Thanks Noeline…..the architecture screams symmetry, so you just have to go that way with the composition.