If you’ve been following me along on my journey, you know I’ve been trying to rediscover my city and romanticize my life. I am lucky to live in a culturally rich city with so many opportunities to explore and revel in the city’s deep history. While researching about my city, Delhi, I realized that I haven’t been to many of the less popular yet beautiful historical places in it. So I have been ticking them off every weekend while enjoying the beautiful Delhi winter sun. Last weekend I went to the ruins of the Feroz Shah Kotla Fort.

History: If you read my last Rediscovering Delhi post, I covered the history of the Tughlaqs and the Tughlaqabad Fort. The Tughlaq dynasty ruled in North India for 100 years. The third ruler in the dynasty, Firoz Shah Tughlaq built his kingdom in Delhi called Ferozabad and the remains of the city are now called Feroz Shah Kotla Fort. During the Tughlaq Dynasty, the three main rulers ended up building three different capitals across Delhi whose ruins you can still see – Tughlaqbad, Jahapanah, and Ferozabad.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq was the last major ruler of the Tughlaw dynasty and probably played a big part in the dynasty’s haste ending. He was a ruler who believed in enjoying life to the fullest instead of spending time conquering, plundering, and causing bloodshed. He built a lot of monuments in his time and even built a canal waterway that was used for hundreds of years after. He enjoyed his life and after his death the Tughlaq dynasty came to a crashing end.

But why is it called the city of Djinns? Djinns are are Islamic angels (please don’t come for me if my description is inaccurate) . They are said to have some powers to manipulate humans and can also pass on your message to God. In 1977, a certain man named Ladu Shah started living in this fort and is said to have popularized it by claiming that the fort is a occupied with djinns. Ever since, devouts have been flocking to the place to leave their wishes on notes inside the fort for djinns to fulfill. The guard in the fort told us that every day people come seeking blessings of the djinns.

Here are some photos from our walk with City Tales:

After the walk, my friend and I headed to Old Delhi to gorge on some amazing food. It wasn’t the best for me because there weren’t any vegan options but overall it was a fun and chaotic Old Delhi visit.

Yesterday we went for another walk about which I’ll write a post soon. I have really been enjoying these walks and redisovering Delhi. I definitely recommend visiting this Fort when you are in Delhi to enjoy Delhi’s history minus the crazy crowds. It can be the first stop on your way to see Old Delhi.

Have you been to Delhi? Is it on your bucket list? How has the first month of 2023 been for you?

PS: You can buy tickets for all ASI monuments on their website online and skip the ticket queue. (this is true for monuments outside Delhi too)

My other posts in this Visit Delhi series are-

Delhi Heritage Walk – Tughluqabad Fort

A Day In The Delhi Sun (Sunder Nursery)

Falling in Love with my City: Delhi Heritage Walk To Purana Qila

5 Offbeat Things To Do When You Visit Delhi

A Day Out in Delhi

If you haven’t already, check out my other recent posts:

• Things I Haven’t Been Liking About Myself This Year
• February 2023: Reads & Update
• Working Title
• Why Am I Scared?
• January 2023: Monthly Book Reads and Reviews