Qutb Minar
— — red sandstone climbing into Delhi's haze.
Not only on a wall.
“A fluted tower of red sandstone and marble, seventy-three metres tall, begun in 1192 by Qutb al-Din Aibak at the southern edge of what was then a new city. Five storeys, each set back from the one below, each ringed with bands of Arabic and Devanagari inscription. It is the tallest brick minaret in the world. The complex around it holds the iron pillar that has not rusted in over fifteen hundred years. from the studio
Qutb Minar, 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.
Qutb Minar stands in Mehrauli in south Delhi, the centrepiece of the Qutb Complex inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1993. Construction began in 1192 under Qutb al-Din Aibak, the first sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, and was completed in stages by his successors over the following century. The minaret rises seventy-three metres in five tapering storeys of red and buff sandstone, with the upper two storeys faced in marble. It remains the tallest brick minaret in the world.
The lower three storeys are dressed in red and buff Sikri sandstone; the fourth and fifth, rebuilt by Firuz Shah Tughlaq after lightning damage in the fourteenth century, are faced in white marble with sandstone bands. The shaft is fluted with alternating angular and rounded ribs, and each storey carries projecting balconies on muqarnas brackets. Bands of inscription in Arabic Naskh and Devanagari quote Qur'anic verse and record the patrons who completed each stage.
The complex is open daily, with the nearest Delhi Metro station at Qutub Minar on the Yellow Line, about a kilometre north. The interior stair has been closed to visitors since a stampede in 1981 in which forty-five people died. The grounds remain open and include the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, the unfinished Alai Minar, and the fourth-century iron pillar that has resisted rust for over fifteen hundred years. Early winter mornings are the clearest light.