Humayun’s Tomb

This guide to Humayun's Tomb in Delhi follows Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, as he flees the fallen Red Fort in September 1857 and takes shelter in his ancestor's tomb, while his own father-in-law, Mirza Ilahi Bux, works against him from outside. It reaches back three centuries to Bega Begum, Humayun's widow, who commissioned the tomb herself and brought a Persian architect from Herat to build something India had never seen. Stand in the garden and take in the symmetry of channels and geometric beds around the dome.