Khan Market, Lodhi Road & die Kulturinstitutionen von Neu-Delhi
Khan Market (the upmarket shopping street in central New Delhi, built in the 1950s to serve the Government of India civil servants and diplomatic community, now consistently ranked among the most expensive retail locations in the world) and the Lodhi Road cultural corridor (the stretch of road from Khan Market south through the diplomatic enclave to the Habitat Centre and the India International Centre) form the intellectual and cultural heart of Lutyens' Delhi — the area where India's governing elite, academic community, foreign diplomats, and journalists have lived and worked since independence.
- 1
Lodhi Garden — 15th-Century Tombs in a Public Park
Lodhi Garden (90 acres, free entry) contains the tombs of 15th-century Sayyid and Lodhi dynasty sultans within a beautifully maintained public garden — Tomb of Muhammad Shah (1444), Shish Gumbad (glazed tile dome, 1489), and Bara Gumbad (large dome mosque complex) sit among mature trees where Delhi residents jog, do yoga, and walk dogs in the early morning.
- 2
Khan Market — Delhi's Most Expensive Real Estate
Khan Market (established 1951 for Partition refugees from the Northwest Frontier Province, now Delhi's priciest retail strip at ₹1,600+ per sq ft rental) houses 250 shops in a U-shaped covered market — Good Earth (homeware, Indian design), Full Circle Bookstore, and Bahrisons Books coexist with South Indian coffee shops and the bars of the Khan Market 'bubble' elite.
- 3
INA Market — Where Delhi's Best Cooks Shop
INA Market (Safdarjung area) is Delhi's most complete grocery market — Iranian spices, Japanese miso, Korean kimchi, Italian pasta alongside freshly ground Indian spice blends, Kashmiri saffron (₹300/gram), and river fish from Bengal; the market's chaotic lanes are navigated by professional cooks from five-star hotels sourcing ingredients unavailable elsewhere in the capital.
- 4
Hauz Khas Village — Medieval Reservoir & Contemporary Art
Hauz Khas Village (the 14th-century Islamic seminary and reservoir of Firoz Shah Tughluq) has been colonized by boutique fashion, galleries, and restaurants inside medieval buildings overlooking a 50-acre artificial lake — the combination of 700-year-old stone architecture and urban nightlife makes it Delhi's most photogenic neighbourhood; the deer park adjacent to the reservoir has spotted deer visible from the café terraces.
- 5
Humayun's Tomb — The Prototype for the Taj Mahal
Humayun's Tomb (Nizamuddin, 1570, UNESCO) was the first garden tomb in the Indian subcontinent and directly inspired the Taj Mahal 60 years later — the Persian double-dome (35m height) and the char bagh (four-quadrant Persian garden) appear here for the first time in India; the Aga Khan Trust for Culture has restored the complex over 15 years at a cost of ₹25 crore.
- 6
Nizamuddin Dargah — Sufi Shrine and Thursday Qawwali
The Dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya (1325, the Chishti Sufi saint) is surrounded by the dense medieval lanes of Nizamuddin Basti — every Thursday evening (after Maghrib prayer, approximately 7:30pm) qawwali musicians perform devotional music at the shrine attended by hundreds of devotees; the shrine's communal kitchen (langar) serves free food to 1,000+ people daily.