TUGHLUQABAD

Location: Near Mehrauli, Delhi
Built By: Tughluqabad, Third City of Delhi
Architectural Style: 1321-25
Built By: Ghiyath-ud-din Tughluq.
The massive strong walls of Tughluqabad, the third city of Delhi, are located east of the Qutab Minar. The citadel frowns down ominously like some Gothic palace all over the Qutub-Badarpur road and seems to prefer its splendid isolation.

Making Of Tughluqabad: Ghiyath-ud-din Tughluq built the walled city and the fort with its 13 gateways. Its construction involved a legendary quarrel with the saint Nizam-ud-din. When the Tughluq ruler took the workers whom Nizam-ud-din wanted for work on his shrine the saint cursed the king with the warning that only the Gujjars (shepherds) would inhabit his city.
The dispute between the king and the saint did not end with curse and counter-curse. When the king prepared to take vengeance on the saint, Nizam-ud-din calmly told his followers, in a saying that is still current in India today, ' Delhi is a long way off'. Indeed it was for the king was murdered on his way to Delhi in 1325.
Earlier, Ghiyath-ud-din had been a general in Ala-ud-din Khalji's army. Once while on the road with Ala-ud-din, Ghiyath-ud-din, on spotting this area, mentioned to the sultan what an ideal setting it seemed to provide for a new city. Upon this the king indulgently replied, that when Ghiyath-ud-din will become the king he should built one. After the death of Ala-ud-din various events conspired to put the general on the throne at last. Then he fulfilled his long-cherished dream, of building Tughluqabad.

TUGHLUQABAD FORT: Tughluqabad Fort was situated on high rocky ground an ideal location to withstand enemy attacks. The fort walls were constructed of massive blocks and outside the south wall of the city is an artificial lake with king's tomb in its center. A long causeway connects the tomb to the fort, both of which have walls that slope inwards. The fort is half-hexagonal in shape. The outer walls are built around the outline of the surrounding land adding a formidable strength to the natural barriers.
Tughluqabad was built in just four years and got abandoned in 1327. Muhammad-bin-Tughluq, was probably one of those modern freethinking men who did not want to be known by his father's laurels? That's why he chose to make a city of his own called Jahanpanah. With Ghiyath-ud-din Tughluq's death, the city's short-lived glory came to an abrupt end.
The fortress of Tughluqabad stands on a rocky hill, 8-km away from the Qutab Minar Complex, on the Qutub-Badarpur Road. Built By Ghiyath-ud-Din Tughluq, it constitutes the third city of Delhi.
Roughly octagonal on plan with a perimeter of 6.5-km, its 10 to 15m high rubble built walls are provided with bastions and gates at intervals. On its south did erecting bunds between hills to the east create a vast reservoir? A causeway connected it with Ghiyath-ud-Din's tomb, standing amidst waters, while a wide embankment near its south eastern-corner gave access to the fortress of Adilabad, built a little later opposite on another hill.
Tughlaqabad was divided mainly into three portions. To the east of the present entrance from the Qutub-Badarpur road, a rectangular area with high walls and bastions served as the citadel. A wider area immediately to the west, similarly bounded by rubble walls and bastions, housed the palaces.
Beyond this to the north lay the city, now marked by ruins of houses? Streets in the city, some of which can be traced even now, ran in a grid-pattern from gates on one side to those on the opposite side. Inside the citadel-enclosure is a tower known as Bijai-Mandal and remains of several halls, including a long underground passage.Near the embankment connecting it with Adilabad are sluice gates, through which water was controlled for irrigating the fields now.