New Delhi, India

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Originally uploaded by Tampen.

New Delhi, the capital of independent India, is not even a hundred years old. Delhi (old Delhi) on the other hand has been the historic capital of the subcontinent for hundreds of years. Much of New Delhi was planned by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who laid out a grandiose capital of the Raj to be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. The reason for the new capital was the coronation of King George V in 1911. The scale and magnificence of New Delhi was not unlike Washington DC or Paris.

Delhi is a spacious, open city that houses many government buildings and embassies, apart from places of historical interest. Notable attractions in New Delhi include the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the one-time imperial residence of the British Viceroys; the India Gate, a memorial raised in honour of the Indian soldiers martyred during the Afghan and subsequent wars; the Laxminarayan Temple, built by the Birlas, one of India's leading industrial families; The Swaminarayan Akshardham temple; Humayun's Tomb, the Purana Quila, built by Humayun, with later-day modifications by Sher Shah Suri Tughlaqabad; Delhi's most colossal and awesome fort, (Qutab Minar), built by Qutb-ud-din Aybak of the Slave Dynasty; and the lotus-shaped Bahá'í House of Worship.