A Visit to The Old Fort, Delhi
Class VII
On 19th February,2020 the students (131) of our school went to the Old Fort for an educational excursion accompanied by seven teachers.
The visit was organised by the school as part of developing pride in our heritage and appreciating the beauty of the architecture of our shared past
We left the school in buses at 9.45 am and reached our destination by10.30am. After deboarding we formed lines and entered the fort through the main Gate known as ‘Bara Darwaza’. It is a beautiful tall gateway with a dome and an arched entrance.
On the left-hand side of Bara Darwaza is the ASI Museum which has exhibits from ancient times to the Gupta period and later periods as well. The carvings and miniature painting were just like the ones shown in our textbooks.
Next, we went to another gate of the fort named ‘Humayun Darwaza’ after the Mughal emperor Humayun. It has two entrances, one on top of the other and the lower one is at the level of the moat which surrounded the fort at one time.
After this we walked to the observatory started by the first Mughal king Babur for his son Humayun which was later completed by Sher Shah Suri. It is an octagonal structure and has beautiful designs of stars on the entrance gate. Right next to the observatory is a bathhouse or ‘Hammam’ which is in ruins and we could not make much from it.
Next on the agenda was the ‘Baoli’ or the ‘step well’ which was quite familiar to us from our PBL research. But it is actually quite deep and has water even after so much time has passed.
Right next to the Baoli was the fort mosque or Qila-e-Kuhna mosque made up of red and yellow sandstone and marble. It was very wide and quite high. It was decorated with ‘aayats’ of Quran and geometrical patterns made up of marble inlaid in sandstone. There was a well alongside and a small pond for ablutions before the prayers.
Then it was time to return and we came back with lots of new discoveries and happy memories.
