The culture shock we experienced during our first morning in India quickly turned to awe and wonderment in the afternoon.
There are many great, historic monuments scattered around Delhi. Our first stop was a visit to the Jama Masjid Mosque. We found India to be very tolerant of the different religious faiths. After all, many of the major religions have a major presence there. Unlike some of the other countries we visited were mosques were strictly off limits to non-Muslims, we were able to visit a number of mosques in India. It was easy. You were just expected to conform to the cultural expectations, i.e. no shoes and women cover their heads.
Tracy is standing to the left in the first photo complete with a rented robe to "cover up" and head scarf. Me, well, lets just say that I was a whole lot more comfortable.
After several more stops visiting the Indian Parliament Buildings and several very impressive mausoleum sites, we found ourselves at the Qutb Complex. Originally a complex of 27 Hindu and Jain temples started 1300 years ago, it was added to by the Muslim Sultans of Delhi in the 1300's.
The site was fairly large and there were all kinds of ruins and temples and old mosques to explore and I love exploring ruins. The detail in the carved sandstone was simply amazing. It would be difficult to imagine how much time was spent building and beautifying the site. It also boasts the tallest brick minaret in the world at 239ft.
Though we took a dozens of photos, I only posted a few to provide a sense of what the Qutb Complex has to offer. It was a great introduction to what our trip had in store.
