Chor Minar or 'Tower of Thieves' is a 13th-century
minaret
A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گلدسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...
with 225 holes, situated just off
Aurobindo Marg
Sri Aurobindo Marg or Aurobindo Marg, is an important South Delhi north-south arterial road connecting historic Safdarjung's Tomb to Qutab Minar. The road is named for Sri Aurobindo Ghosh; the Delhi campus of Sri Aurobindo Ashram is located on ...
in the
Hauz Khas
Hauz Khas is a neighborhood in South Delhi, its heart being the historic Hauz Khas Complex. Well known in medieval times, the Hauz Khas village has amazing buildings built around the reservoir. There are remnants of Islamic architecture rough ...
area, in
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...
.
[Chor Minar]
/ref> The Chor Minar is nearly 700 to 800 years old. it's also situated in narnaul Haryana near dhosi hills 120 km away from Delhi
History
It was built under the rule of Alauddin Khalji
Alaud-Dīn Khaljī, also called Alauddin Khilji or Alauddin Ghilji (), born Ali Gurshasp, was an emperor of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the Indian subcontinent. Alauddin instituted a number of significant administrativ ...
, of the Khalji dynasty
The Khalji or Khilji (Pashto: ; Persian: ) dynasty was a Turco-Afghan dynasty which ruled the Delhi sultanate, covering large parts of the Indian subcontinent for nearly three decades between 1290 and 1320.[Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...]
people, nearby, to stop them from joining with their brethren in another Mongol settlement in Delhi, the present day locality of 'Mongolpuri'.
During the raid of Ali Beg, Tartaq and Targhi (1305), 8,000 Mongol prisoners were executed and their heads displayed is the towers around Siri
Siri ( ) is a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Inc.'s iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and audioOS operating systems. It uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a natural-language user interface to answer qu ...
Purpose
According to local legends, it was a 'tower of beheading', where the severed heads of thieves were displayed on spear through its 225 holes, to act as a deterrent to thieves.
/ref> In case the heads exceeded the number of holes, the less important heads were piled in a pyramid
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...
outside the tower
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures.
Towers are specific ...
.
References
External links
Image of Chor Minar
{{Delhi
Monuments of National Importance in Delhi
History of Delhi
Architecture of the Khalji dynasty
Round towers
Minarets in India