Safdarjung Tomb, Delhi

This guide to Safdarjung's Tomb in Delhi follows Safdarjung, born Muhammad Muqim, a Persian arrival who rose to become the Mughal empire's prime minister in 1748 before court rivals brought him down in disgrace by 1753. It traces the son who petitioned a weakened emperor to build his father a garden tomb in the very city that had expelled him, and what the stone reused in these walls reveals about an empire running out of resources. Stand a while in the garden and take in the channels and pavilions before the sandstone dome ahead.