Delhi is the political and administrative capital of India and the largest democracy in the world, a melting pot of both culture and religion plus a constantly expanding metropolis that has more than ten million inhabitants. Built on the site of twelve former cities it is the gateway to India and has been the country’s centre of power for almost a thousand years.

Jama Masjid, the Friday Mosque, is one of old Delhi’s main landmarks, bequeathed to the city by the Mogul king, Shah Jahan. Its huge inner courtyard accommodates twenty thousand.

Raj Ghat is a memorial to the country’s former political leaders and once contained the funeral pyres of Mahatma Ghandi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Ghandi.

Rajpath is the name of an impressive three hundred metre wide road flanked by green swathes and luxuriant fountains, remnants of British Imperial rule.

The National Rail Museum contains an interesting collection of nostalgic locomotives, carriages and memorabilia and for those who do not wish to risk a journey on India’s present day over-packed trains, the museum provides the perfect opportunity to imagine how it must have been on the Indian railroads of old.

The Safdar-Jang Mausoleum was built in the final years of Mogul rule and is an architectural monument of this golden era. It contains each design element of this epoch, with a terrace-like substructure, painted stucco and a dome.

No other city in this huge and diverse country demonstrates the dramatic history of India with all the intensity of colour as Delhi.