Safdarjung Tomb - The last Monumental Tomb Garden of the Mughals with outstanding architecture competing with 3 stunning UNESCO heritage sites of Delhi

Delhi is extremely rich in terms of heritage and there are 3 UNESCO sites in the capital city of India. Apart from Red Fort, Qutub Minar and Humayun's tomb there are lot of other monuments to visit & explore in Delhi. Safdarjung is very special amongst them because of various reasons like it's architecture, well maintained gardens around it, it's location and a lot more which we will share through this blogpost. We will also discuss about how to reach Safdarjung Tomb from various parts of Delhi by using various transportation systems and entry ticket fees, timings etc. But more than that, we bring you some interesting secrets about Safdarjung Tomb and places around it.

How to reach Safdarjung Tomb from different parts of Delhi :

Nearest Metro station to Safdarjung Tomb :

Nearest metro station is Jor Bagh station which comes on the yellow line of metro railways from where it would be easy to reach Safdarjung Tomb by taking an auto or a taxi.

Delhi Tourism HoHo bus - HOHO buses run by Delhi Tourism stops at Safdarjung tomb. If you are in city for a day or 2, this is recommended option because Hoho buses run between some of the most popular tourist places and convenient.

App based taxis like Uber/Ola

Auto-Rickshaw or Cycle-Rickshaw

DTC buses also cross through the road on which Safdarjung Tomb is.

Safdarjung's Tomb was built in 1754 in the style of late Mughal architecture and is surrounded by lush green gardens around it. The top story of the edifice houses the Archaeological Survey of India and that sounded very cool to me, when I got to know about it for the first time. The main tomb structure is surrounded by symmetrical gardens from all side like Mughal Gardens. This tomb is made up of red stone and marble.

What are the timings of Safdarjung Tomb and Entry Ticket fees :

Entry fees of safdarjung tomb for Indians = Rs. 5.0 per person

Entry fees of safdarjung tomb for Foreigners = 100.0 rupees per person

Ticket for Video camera = 25 Rupee

Safdarjung Tomb opens at 7am and closes at 5pm.

The Safdarjung tomb is quite similar to Humayun tomb in terms of shape, surroundings and colour of the building, although Humayun's tomb is much bigger and finer details are similar but quite different. The slabs from the tomb of Abdul Rahim Khankhana were used in the construction of the tomb.

The Safdarjung Tomb is popular for it's 4 features like : The Char Bagh with mausoleum at the centre, a ninefold floor plan, a five-part facade and a large podium with a hidden stairways.

Posted by Ripple (VJ) : First attempt to Create HDR : Safdarjung's Tomb is a garden tomb in a marble mausoleum in Delhi, India. It was built in 1754 in the style of late Mughal architecture. The top story of the edifice houses the Archaeological Survey of India. The garden, in the style evolved by the Mughal Empire that is now known as the Mughal gardens style known as a charbagh, is entered through an ornate gate. Its facade is decorated with elaborate plaster carvings.I had heard a lot about Photomatix and today tried with set of three photographs shown below..PHOTOMATIX is one of the top software for HDR processing. A Company called HDRSoft owns this software and continuously work to make it betterPhotomatix Pro is available on Mac OS X as well as Microsoft Windows and primarily designed to make the process of merging multiple photographs into high dynamic range images and then locally tone-mapping them back to LDR images, easier and more streamlined. Different exposures are best taken as three different AW files. However, in some circumstances you can use one file and process the different exposures from this photographyWe shall try this software for creating HDR out of single Photograph and share soon.

Other places to explore around Safdarjung Tomb in Delhi :

There are various interesting places to explore around Safdarjung. For that you can look at the map and decide which part you want to explore. We have few recommendations below if you have time.

Lodhi Garden

Lodhi garden is at walking distance from Lodhi Garden and it's huge. It's not only a beautiful park with green landscapes but it also has some stunning heritage structures and a very beautiful water body with well structured bridge over it. It's probably one of the best parks to walk around during early morning and late evening. Lot of families come here for weekend or evening picnics and there is enough space in the park. For more, check out the following link :

Another visit to Lodhi Garden @ Delhi, INDIA || PHOTO JOURNEY through green lawns, interesting Monuments, water-bodies & meeting some birds

Khan Market :

Khan Market is very next to Lodhi Garden and again it's at walking distance from Lodhi Garden. Khan Market is popular market in South Delhi which has some very interesting showrooms, designer outlets, fancy cafes and outstanding restaurants along with some very old & popular eateries like Khan Chacha's Kebabs.

If you want to move to somewhere else in Delhi, there is a Metro station close to Khan Market.

India Habitat Center :

India Habitat Center is again at walking distance from Safdarjung Tomb. India Habitat Center on Lodhi road in Delhi is a brilliant place which hosts some of the great art shows, photography exhibitions, Art/Literary festivals and lot of interesting events around Art/Culture. I have regularly visiting IHC for last 10 years and it's always refreshing to roam around the campus, see some art shows & have food at 'Eatopia' or 'The all American Diner'.

To know more about India Habitat Center, please check out following :

India Habitat Center, Delhi - A must visit place for folks who love Art

India Gate:

Question: What is that one place in Delhi that symbolizes patriotism, the "coolness" factor, the common man, and the top bureaucracy, peace, and struggle, all at one go? And the right answer is... you guessed it. India Gate!The simple, yet imposing, structure, the India Gate is also home to the Amar Jawan Jyoti - the eternal flame that is kept alight in the memory of soldiers who were martyred in the various wars and during India's struggle for freedom. India Gate is also at the centre of the annual Republic Day Parade, which fills every Indian's heart with pride and also showcases the strength of Indian Armed Forces to the world. Today, India Gate has also come to be known as the place where the common people of Delhi and beyond gather on a pleasant day or in evenings and hangout till late in the night munching on spicy bhelpuri, golgappe, and sweet potato chaat. It is the place where women-hawkers, draped in colorful Rajasthani or Haryanvi attire, sell trinkets to tourists, where patient young men lighten up the surroundings with magical soap-bubbles in an attempt to entice children into buying the soup solution and the bubble blower. Tea-sellers roam the lawns with their shiny aluminium kettles selling tea to youngsters sitting on the green lawns, while photographers try to convince people to get their pictures clicked with India Gate in the background. The entire vista is bubbling with happiness and life. And this becomes even magical in the monsoons when the sky is clear and the puddles form everywhere offering opportunities to click spectacular reflections of India Gate. All pictures in this post are shot with our smartphone Huawei Honor 5c. We take pride in calling ourselves the Huawei Honor family as almost all of us own a Honor phone. And we can't be more pleased with the results. At India Gate, this gathering of common people is happening in the backdrop of the President's House. And this is what Delhi is all about - the land of contrasts and contradictions. Even though we are mighty proud of the pictures in this post, no picture can ever do justice to the enigma that is India Gate of today.

India Gate is that one place in Delhi that symbolizes patriotism, the "coolness" factor, the common man, and the top bureaucracy, peace, and struggle, all at one go The simple, yet imposing, structure, the India Gate is also home to the Amar Jawan Jyoti - the eternal flame that is kept alight in the memory of soldiers who were martyred in the various wars and during India's struggle for freedom. India Gate is also at the centre of the annual Republic Day Parade in Delhi, which fills every Indian's heart with pride and also showcases the strength of Indian Armed Forces to the world.

Check out the following link for more about India Gate - https://www.travellingcamera.com/search/label/India%20Gate

Humayun's Tomb :

Recently some of my friends had permissions to visit various monuments in Delhi to shoot Lunar Eclipse on 10th Dec, 2011. I also joined them, although all the hard-work for planning these photo-shoots, getting permissions and arranging appropriate equipments was done by other folks. All photographs shared here are not related to the project. These are some of the casual shots taken during eclipse hours on that evening...Here is one of the simple shot when eclipse just started This shot was taken around 6:35 pm on 10th Dec, 2011 !!! Usually Lunar Eclipse used to take place in January, when sky is mainly covered with clouds or fog. Since this time, it happened early, people got to see it clearly and there was huge buzz among various Photography communities.Here is one of the photograph of Humayun's tomb. It's taken with Zoon-in/Zoom-out during long-exposure. Since most of folks were busy on eclipse project and they had to spent 4 hrs at Humayun's tomb, I thought of roaming around and having some clicks of the place in this wonderful lighting, which is rare to capture. Above photograph is also a result of some of the experiments done at Humayun's Tomb, Delhi.Here are some water ponds in all four directions of Humayn's Tomb, but the one in front of entry gate is maintained well. Reflection of the main tomb was looking awesome in Eclipse hours, although above photograph failed to show the real magic... You can see the shining moon in the sky and lovely hues of sunset, when exposed this view for a long time.A similar photograph of Humayn Tomb, with some part of it being reflecting on adjoining water stream... Usually Humayun Tomb closes before Sunset, but if someone wants to have access for some specific purpose, permissions are required in advance.Relatively closer look at Lunar Eclipse through Humayun Tomb. Lunar Eclipse of 10th Dec 2011 can be seen in Photographs at http://www.examiner.com/photography-in-national/yesterday-s-total-lunar-eclipse-photos-1 as well !!!Light and colors were changing with every minute. In fact the change was very prominent for folks who were shooting moon close-ups with tele-photo lenses. After one stage, color of moon starts changing to red and again come back natural shade after few hours...Opposite side of Humayun Tomb, Delhi, INDIAThere are various photography techniques are explained on web and some of them are really technical. At the same time, some of them are really easy to get an idea about the concept and light variation trend during the eclipse hours. In my opinion, understanding the concept and applying your ideas is more important otherwise we always see similar shots on every lunar eclipse. Now many softwares even come with standard ways of capturing lunar eclipse and create single HDR or multi-exposure shots.Carrying Gorilla-pod helps in placing camera at low height, so that some of the other compositions can be tried... No doubt that sturdy and big tripods are important for such shoots but some desi fundas also work well :)Humayun Tomb is very well maintained by Archaeological Survey of India !!! ASI is is the organization to get special permissions to get entry into Humayun Tomb in odd hours. There is lot of green area around main tomb in this campus. And there is very special thing about Mughal Architecture that all four areas around a building are maintained in similar fashion. Alignments of landscapes, gardens and trees would be exactly same.During day time, entry fees for SAARC citizens is 10 Rs. SAARC includes Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Maldives and Afghanistan... BIMSTEC Countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar also need to pay 10 Rs only. For others it's $5.This photograph would be give you a sense about it's shape and architecture. It has a square base and all four faces of Humayun Tomb look same. Theoretically it's a two storey building but height of one storey is unmatchable :) ... Whole building is made of red stone and Taj Mahal is exactly replica of this building, but in white marble...Light streaks touching ground after filtering through tree leaves around Humayun Tomb... Such photographs from early morning look stunning, as light is most favorable at that point of time of the day...Check following link on wiipedia to know more about Humayun Tomb - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Humayun . This page has rich information about architecture of Humayun Tomb and history related to it.Humayun Tomb is also in the list of World Heritage sites maintained by UNESCO. Check out http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/232 for more details.Every other site about Delhi has special mention of Humayun Tomb, so I would not repeat all those well known facts about the place. Delhicapital.com has also written about Humayun Tomb in a well structured way... Check it out......A photographer sitting in front of main Tomb in the campus to shoot Lunar Eclipse 2011 with Humayun Tomb in foreground. These folks were sitting at same place, fiddling with camera setting to get best possible multi-exposure shots. Some of them also work on HDRs and hope to see the results soon.Some of the standard techniques of shooting Lunar Eclipses are available here - it was lovely evening with enthusiastic Photographers at Humayun Tomb !!!

Taj Mahal of Delhi in red stone is Humayun's tomb, although the real connection between Taj Mahal & Humayun's tomb is more interesting. When Taj Mahal was built, the inspiration for Architecture came from this beautiful tomb in Delhi. Certainly the size of Taj Mahal is huge in comparison to the Humayun's Tomb and other basic difference is kind of stone used. Taj Mahal is made up of white marble when Humayun's tomb is in Red Stone. Both of these beautiful monuments are symmetrical and built on top of a square platform. Look at the monument from any of the four directions and it will look the same.

Humayun Tomb is one of the popular place among Delhi Photographers and many of the Photographers have worked on this beautiful monument. I have visited this place many times and this time we were accompanying some of the office folks who had come from US and wanted to explore something around Delhi.

Najaf Khan's Tomb :

If above list is not enough, go check out Google Maps and it's 3D view to figure what else would you want to explore in this part of Delhi. I love exploring places of Google map and photographs below are just screenshots from it's Street View. Isn't it amazing.

Safdarjung Tomb is located in Delhi’s Jor Bagh area and is one of the grandest monuments of Delhi city. Although it's not as popular as other monuments of the capital city of India. It's not that crowded and hence a perfect place for exploration at peace.

Safdarjung Tomb has had an important role in shaping the history of the city and being an architectural marvel of the Mughal era.

Above screenshot shows the entry area of the Safdarjung Tomb. The bigger door in the middle connects to the parking area and the road on other side.

The main entry gate to the Safdarjung tomb is two-storied and it has very elaborate ornamentation over plastered surfaces. On internet, you will find some very interesting photographs of this gate. Unfortunately I lost almost all photographs of Safdarjung tomb, which means I should plan a trip soon. There is an inscription in Arabic on the surface and to know it's translation & interesting stories, try to find a guide to accompany you. To the right of the entry gate of Safdarjung Tomb, there is a mosque which is a three-domed structure marked with stripes. You can see it in above photograph.

Safdarjung Tomb remains a special place for Travellingcamera and we will soon be there again.

If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -

1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.

2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.

3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.

4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.

5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite.

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Tea, cold-drinks, chips and some light snacks are offered by small vendors inside the garden. It's good to see dustbins installed at reachable places, which are quite helpful in keeping the place clean. Many families come to Lodhi Garden to celebrate weekend with their kids & family members. It's always really nice to see a different type of environment in the lawns of Lodhi Garden.

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