Hisar
— — a fort city the sultan founded and the wind kept.
Not only on a wall.
“A city founded in 1354 by Firoz Shah Tughlaq on the dry western Haryana plain, halfway between the Yamuna and the Sutlej. The old palace complex still stands in the centre of town: Gujri Mahal, the Lat ki Masjid, and the broken sandstone walls Firoz raised when this was a hunting ground at the edge of the sultanate. The plain runs flat to the horizon in every direction. In winter the sky comes in clear and cold, and the old stone holds the last warm light of the day. from the studio
Hisar, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Hisar is the headquarters of Hisar district in western Haryana, about 165 kilometres west of Delhi on National Highway 9. The city was founded in 1354 by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, the third sultan of the Tughlaq dynasty, who named it Hisar-i-Firoza — Firoz's fort — for the citadel he built here at the edge of his hunting grounds. The 2011 Census counted roughly 301,000 residents within the city limits. Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, founded in 1970, sits on the southern edge and is one of the largest agricultural universities in Asia.
The Firoz Shah Palace Complex in the centre of the city still carries the original Tughlaq stone. Gujri Mahal — built, by tradition, for Firoz's Gurjar consort — stands inside the walled compound along with the Lat ki Masjid and the iron-rich sandstone pillar (the lat) that gave the mosque its name. The lat is a single shaft cut from older Hindu and Jain temple columns the Tughlaq builders reused; sections of Buddhist Ashokan-era stone are also bound into it. The complex is protected under the Archaeological Survey of India and stays open through daylight hours.
Most visitors come overland from Delhi on NH-9; the drive runs about three hours outside peak traffic. Hisar Junction is on the Delhi-Bathinda railway and carries frequent express service. A small civilian airport on the western edge of town opened scheduled flights in 2024. The Firoz Shah Palace Complex sits in the centre near the railway station and is best walked in the cool morning hours. November through February is the comfortable season, with daytime temperatures between 8 and 22°C; May and June run regularly above 44°C on the open plain, and the heat off the sandstone is hard.