Purana Qila (Old Fort)

Purana Qila, or the Old Fort, is believed to stand on the site of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas from the Mahabharata, though its surviving structure dates to a much later period. Massive stone walls and three grand gateways enclose the fort's interior, where a mosque, a small step-well and other ruins hint at a layered history of successive rulers building on the same strategic site along the Yamuna.

An evening light-and-sound show at the fort narrates Delhi's history across the centuries, and a small archaeological museum near the entrance displays finds from ongoing excavations that continue to explore the site's much older, pre-Islamic layers. The fort's boating lake outside the walls adds a more relaxed recreational element for visiting families.

The current structure was largely built by Humayun and later completed by Sher Shah Suri during his brief interruption of Mughal rule in the 1540s, with each ruler adding his own structures to a site already considered ancient and significant well before either of them.

Near Pragati Maidan metro station, central Delhi.