Qutub Minar site features

Qutb Minar rises 72.5 metres from a base 14.32 metres wide and narrows to 2.75 metres. Five balcony rings divide the tapering shaft. Red and buff sandstone, fluted surfaces and inscription bands make its profile change with distance.

At ground level, the Quwwat-ul-Islam courtyard is a lower, denser field of carved columns and screen arches. The Iron Pillar stands as a smooth vertical line within it. Iltutmish’s tomb is a square stone chamber whose interior walls are almost fully worked with carving.

South of the minar, Alai Darwaza compresses intricate geometry into a compact gateway. Nearby, the unfinished Alai Minar is a rough, broad cylinder only one storey high.

Qutb Minar

1199–1503. The five-storey tower tapers from 14.32 to 2.75 metres across and reaches 72.5 metres.

Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque

1198. Carved reused columns line an early Sultanate mosque court behind a later arched screen.

Iron Pillar

4th century A.D.. The Sanskrit-inscribed pillar predates the surrounding Islamic complex by many centuries.

Iltutmish’s Tomb

1235. Dense inscriptional, geometric and arabesque carving covers the square chamber.

Alai Darwaza

1311. The southern ceremonial gate presents a later and more technically assured phase of construction.

Alai Minar

1296–1311. A 25-metre first storey is all that survives of a tower planned at twice Qutb Minar’s scale.