Introduction
Delhi is not a state but a National Capital Territory — a compact urban region of some 1,500 square kilometres that holds India's political capital, the ruins of seven earlier capitals, and a metropolitan population among the largest on earth. The site has been settled for around three thousand years, and what makes it unusual is that each successive city was built beside its predecessor rather than on top of it, so all of them survive somewhere in the territory.
Discover Delhi
The succession is worth walking rather than reading. The first fortified settlement, Lal Kot, was raised by the Tomara Rajputs in the eighth century and survives as walls near the Qutub complex, which the Sultanate then built over. Siri, Tughlaqabad, Jahanpanah and Firozabad followed under successive Delhi Sultanate dynasties, each a new city on fresh ground, leaving forts, tombs and mosques scattered across what is now south and central Delhi. Sher Shah Suri's Shergarh — today's Purana Qila — went up in the 1540s on the site traditionally identified with the legendary Indraprastha of the Mahabharata, and excavations inside its walls have turned up pottery from around 1000 BCE, which is the closest thing to physical evidence of the deep settlement the epics describe. Shah Jahan's Shahjahanabad came in 1639, the British capital in the 1930s, and modern Delhi sprawls across all of them. The monuments themselves belong to the two city guides — the metropolis in the Delhi city guide and the planned capital in its own — but the pattern only makes sense at territory scale.
Ways to Experience This Destination
Eight cities raised beside one another over a thousand years — Rajput walls, four Sultanate capitals, a Mughal river city and a planned imperial one, all still standing somewhere in the territory.
Tughlaqabad's six kilometres of abandoned walls and cisterns, overgrown and almost unvisited, and the compact Purana Qila with its live archaeological trench.
An Aravalli spur of dry forest running the length of the territory, with over four hundred bird species recorded across the Ridge, the floodplain and the wetlands at its edges.
The Lotus Temple's twenty-seven marble petals, Akshardham's carved sandstone beside the Yamuna, and the vast, little-visited Chhattarpur complex in the far south.
The difference between the National Capital Territory and the far larger National Capital Region — and why a hotel described as being in Delhi may sit an hour away in another state.
Territory-Level Notes for Delhi
- “Delhi” in an address may mean the National Capital Region rather than the National Capital Territory: Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad are in neighbouring states, with different taxi pricing, alcohol rules and travel times to the historic centre. Check which side of the boundary a hotel sits on before booking.
- The sights are spread across roughly thirty kilometres north to south. Pair them by district rather than by fame — the single biggest time saving available in this territory.
- Tughlaqabad and the Ridge are where the metro thins out and shared transport becomes scarce; budget for a car or ride-hail for those half-days, and wear proper shoes for the ruins, which are genuinely rough underfoot.
- The modern temple complexes each close on a different day and Akshardham prohibits electronics entirely, with airport-grade security at the gate — check both before making the journey out.
Cities in Delhi
Visaja keeps this page's contact details and visa guidance under continuous review — still, requirements can change at short notice, so confirm the essentials with the mission or the official government portal before you travel.