Delhi

Delhi is a clash of old infrastructure and population growth pushing it to fracturing levels. If it isn't the pollution that will kill you it will be the unrelenting noise of the traffic. I love it.

On my first arrival to Delhi, I was met with the strangest occurrence, smog in the airport. This haze went through the entire complex. How or why it was in here still baffles me, but on my way out of India through Delhi, the appearance of this smog, wasn't evident. I had asked other travelers that had come in  the past couple of days if they too had this happen to them, and we all seemed experience the same thing. Odd.

I had spent 3 days in Delhi before moving on to other Rajastan locations. The prominent area I photographed was Old Delhi. I was told by a Delhite that it was imperative that I saw this area. What Delhi used to be like. It was a site to be hold. My second time through I was less impacted by the collision of wires, buildings, bikes, vehicles and people moving in and out of narrow allies and side streets.

What got me about Old Delhi was the web of wires criss-crossing above your head as the pictures below illustrate.

One of the main temples here is Jama Masjid. This great mosque of Old Delhi is the largest in India, with a courtyard capable of holding 25,000 devotees. It was begun in 1644 and ended up being the final architectural extravagance of Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort.

The highly decorative mosque has three great gates, four towers and two 40 m-high minarets constructed of strips of red sandstone and white marble. Travellers can hire robes at the northern gate. This may be the only time you get to dress like a local without feeling like an outsider so make the most of it.