City Asia
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It has wide roads lined with trees. A huge stone arch called India Gate stands in the heart of the city.
New Delhi is the capital of India, a city planned and built in the early 1900s inside the much older city of Delhi. Its wide, tree-lined avenues run between grand buildings such as Rashtrapati Bhavan, the home of India's President, and India Gate, a 42-meter stone arch.
New Delhi, India's capital, was designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker after the 1911 Delhi Durbar announced the move of British India's capital from Calcutta to Delhi. Its plan joins City Beautiful vistas with Garden City greenery around a central axis from Raisina Hill to India Gate. Census 2011 (New Delhi Municipal Council area): 257,803.
Photo: Navonildutta4, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India.
It is a new part of a very old city called Delhi. It has wide roads with lots of trees, big gardens and grand buildings.
New Delhi is the capital of India. It is a planned city: before it was built, architects drew the whole design, with its roads, buildings and parks, on paper. The British architect Edwin Lutyens and his colleague Herbert Baker designed it after 1911, when the capital of British India was moved from Calcutta to Delhi.
New Delhi lies within the huge city of Delhi. The 2011 census counted 257,803 people in the area run by the New Delhi Municipal Council.
New Delhi was created as the seat of government after the Delhi Durbar of December 12, 1911, at which the shift of British India's capital from Calcutta to Delhi was announced. Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker designed it, and UNESCO's tentative-list entry "Delhi – A Heritage City" (2012) names it one of four historic precincts of Delhi, with Mehrauli, Nizamuddin and the Mughal walled city of Shahjahanabad.
The 2011 census counted 257,803 people in the New Delhi Municipal Council area (the provisional figure was 249,998), a small part of the Delhi urban agglomeration.
- Country
- India (capital)
- People in the New Delhi Municipal Council area (2011 census)
- 257,803
- Designed by
- Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker
- Capital move announced
- December 12, 1911 (Delhi Durbar)
A palace and a great arch
The President of India lives in a giant palace called Rashtrapati Bhavan.
It has about 340 rooms! At the other end of a long road stands India Gate, a tall stone arch.
On Raisina Hill stands Rashtrapati Bhavan, built as the Viceroy's House and today the home of the President of India. It has about 340 rooms on four floors, and walking through all of it would take about three hours. It is built of pink and cream sandstone, with a black dome on top.
At the east end of the long avenue is India Gate, a 42-meter arch of sandstone designed by Lutyens. It is a memorial to Indian soldiers who died in the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Its foundation stone was laid in 1921, and it was dedicated in 1931.
Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President's residence, was conceived by Lutyens as an H-shaped building covering 5 acres of a 330-acre estate, with some 340 rooms on four floors and about 18,580 m² of floor space. Pink sandstone from the Fatehpur Sikri quarries and cream Dholpur stone are combined with Indian features such as chhajjas (overhanging eaves), chhatris (domed pavilions) and jaalis (stone screens), under a black dome with a copper covering. In the forecourt rises the 44.2 m Jaipur Column, crowned by a bronze lotus and a six-pointed glass star.
India Gate, a 42 m sandstone arch by Lutyens on a base of red Bharatpur stone, commemorates Indian soldiers who died in the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War; the dates 1914 and 1919 flank the word INDIA. Its foundation stone was laid in 1921 and Lord Irwin dedicated it in 1931.
- Rashtrapati Bhavan
- about 340 rooms on four floors, on a 330-acre estate
- India Gate
- a 42-meter sandstone arch, dedicated in 1931
- Jaipur Column
- 44.2 m, topped by a bronze lotus and a glass star
Building a capital
More than 100 years ago, at a big royal gathering, people heard that India's capital would move to Delhi.
Thousands of workers built new roads, gardens and grand buildings. That new city is New Delhi.
At a huge gathering called the Delhi Durbar on December 12, 1911, it was announced that the capital of British India would move from Calcutta to Delhi. A new city had to be built. The planners first looked at land in the north, but it was close to the Yamuna River and could flood, so they chose Raisina Hill, which was higher and drained better.
Building the Viceroy's House took more than 17 years, partly because the First World War slowed the work. At the busiest time, about 23,000 workers were building it, including 3,000 stone-cutters. A special railway line carried the building materials.
The Delhi Durbar of December 12, 1911, held to mark the coronation of King George V, announced the transfer of British India's capital from Calcutta to Delhi. Lutyens, on the Delhi Town Planning Committee, and his colleagues rejected the first choice, Kingsway Camp in the north, as too vulnerable to Yamuna floods, and chose Raisina Hill for its high ground and better drainage. The rocky hills were leveled, a dedicated railway line brought materials, and, with no river nearby, subsoil water was pumped for construction.
Begun under Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy's House took more than 17 years, delayed by the First World War; at the peak about 23,000 laborers, among them 3,000 stone-cutters, worked on it, using some 700 million bricks and three million cubic feet of stone. Lord Irwin became its first occupant in April 1929. Today it is Rashtrapati Bhavan, and an exhibition of Indian art held in its great hall in the late 1940s became the foundation of the National Museum.
Avenues, parades and the metro
New Delhi has very wide roads with rows of trees.
Every year a big parade marches down the widest road. Children and dancers join in! People also ride the metro train.
New Delhi was designed around one very long, very wide avenue that runs from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, once called Kingsway and Rajpath and now Kartavya Path. At 440 feet, or about 134 meters, it is the widest of the city's avenues, which are lined with rows of trees.
Every January 26, Republic Day, a grand parade moves along Kartavya Path, with school children and folk dancers taking part. The Delhi Metro serves Delhi and the region around it. In October 2026 its managing director said it is working to bring metro stations to the new offices around India Gate.
India's entry on UNESCO's tentative list describes New Delhi's plan around the Central Vista: Kingsway (later Rajpath, now Kartavya Path) runs east from Rashtrapati Bhavan between the Secretariat blocks to the hexagonal roundabout of India Gate, while the cross axis, Queensway (now Janpath), runs south from the business district of Connaught Place. Avenues range from 60 to 300 feet wide, the grand axis is 440 feet, and planted parkways carry several rows of trees.
The Republic Day parade follows Kartavya Path every January 26. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's managing director said in October 2026 that the corporation is working to bring metro stations to the new office complexes of the Central Vista around India Gate, that more than 100 km of new lines will open by 2030, and that the network will pass 500 km once its current corridors are finished.
- Widest avenue (the grand axis)
- 440 feet (about 134 m)
- Republic Day parade
- every January 26, along Kartavya Path
- Delhi Metro
- run by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)
Hot summers and a rainy season
Summers in New Delhi are very, very hot.
Then big rains come in July and August. Winters are cool and mostly dry.
New Delhi has hot summers and cool winters. At the World Meteorological Organization's Safdarjung station, days were hottest in May between 1901 and 2000, averaging about 40 °C. In January, days averaged about 21 °C and nights about 8 °C.
Most of the year's rain falls in a few summer months. July and August each average about 200 millimeters, while November averages only about 4 millimeters. A whole year brings about 716 millimeters.
WMO normals for New Delhi (Safdarjung), from the India Meteorological Department for 1901–2000, give average highs and lows of about 20.8 °C and 7.8 °C in January and 39.8 °C and 26.2 °C in May, which has the hottest days; June days are almost as hot (39.4 °C) and its nights warmer (28.3 °C), and July, wetter, averages 35.2 °C by day and 27.0 °C at night.
The monthly averages sum to about 716 mm. June to September bring about 601 mm, or 84 percent of the total, with August the wettest month at 206.5 mm, while October to May each average about 21 mm or less.
- January, average daily high and low (WMO New Delhi Safdarjung station, 1901–2000)
- about 21 °C and 8 °C
- May, average daily high and low (same station and period)
- about 40 °C and 26 °C
- Rain in a year (sum of the monthly averages)
- about 716 mm
Museums, gardens and markets
New Delhi has big gardens full of flowers.
The President's garden has flower beds and water channels. There are museums, an old place for watching the sky, and shops.
The gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan, called Amrit Udyan, have flower beds, terraces and water channels. It includes a Long Garden, a Circular Garden, a Musical Garden and a Sensory, or Tactile, Garden, and QR codes tell visitors the name of each plant.
Near India Gate are the National Museum, the National Gallery of Modern Art and the National War Memorial. Jantar Mantar is an observatory from the early 1700s, with geometric structures and instruments for studying the sky. Connaught Place is New Delhi's business district.
Amrit Udyan, the gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan, combines geometric layouts and organic forms in flower beds, terraces and water channels, divided into the Central Lawn, Long Garden, Circular Garden, Musical Garden, Spiritual Garden, Sensory (Tactile) Garden and Arogya Vanam; QR codes give each plant's botanical name and description.
Around India Gate are the National War Memorial, the National Gallery of Modern Art and, on Janpath, the National Museum, whose collection began with the exhibition of Indian art held in Rashtrapati Bhavan in the late 1940s. Jantar Mantar is an early-18th-century astronomical observatory known for its geometric structures and instruments. Connaught Place, from which Janpath runs south, is the business district; the tentative-list entry notes it is the one part of the original plan where building heights have changed.
- Amrit Udyan
- the gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan, with flower beds, terraces and water channels
- Connaught Place
- the business district where Janpath begins
- Jantar Mantar
- an astronomical observatory from the early 1700s
New Delhi on the map
Find New Delhi on the globe.
It is in India, in the north of the country. It is part of the big city of Delhi, which grew up beside a river called the Yamuna.
New Delhi is in northern India, part of the great city of Delhi, which grew up between the Yamuna River and the Aravalli hills. At its core is Raisina Hill, where Rashtrapati Bhavan stands, and from there the main avenue runs east to India Gate.
The planners picked this higher ground because land closer to the Yamuna, in the north, could flood. Delhi's older cities, such as the Mughal walled city of Shahjahanabad with its Red Fort, are also part of the same great city.
New Delhi lies at about 28.6° N and 77.2° E within the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Its plan is set on Raisina Hill, chosen over the flood-prone Kingsway Camp site near the Yamuna, with the central axis running east to India Gate and Janpath running south from Connaught Place.
UNESCO's tentative-list entry treats New Delhi as one of four precincts of a single heritage city, alongside Mehrauli, Nizamuddin and Shahjahanabad, the walled city founded by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the mid-17th century around the palace fortress now called the Red Fort.
- Latitude
- about 28.6° north
- Longitude
- about 77.2° east
- Delhi's river
- the Yamuna
Amazing facts
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The President's palace in New Delhi has about 340 rooms.
Rashtrapati Bhavan has about 340 rooms on four floors. Walking through all of its halls, corridors and rooms would take about three hours.
Rashtrapati Bhavan has some 340 rooms on four floors and about 18,580 m² of floor area; the President's Secretariat says it would take three hours to cover on foot.
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A tall stone column stands in front of the palace, with a glass star on top.
In front of Rashtrapati Bhavan stands the Jaipur Column, 44.2 meters tall, topped by a bronze lotus and a six-pointed glass star.
A steel tube inside the 44.2 m Jaipur Column ties its bronze lotus and glass star, a little over five tonnes, to a concrete block in the foundation; its cost was paid by the Maharaja of Jaipur.
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India's big Republic Day parade passes along New Delhi's widest road.
Every January 26, Republic Day, a grand parade with school children and folk dancers travels along Kartavya Path.
The Republic Day parade on January 26 follows Kartavya Path, the former Rajpath, between Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate.
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The President's garden has signs you can scan to learn each plant's name.
In Amrit Udyan, the gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan, visitors can scan QR codes to learn the name of each plant.
Amrit Udyan uses QR codes for plant identification, giving each species' botanical name and a description.
Words to know
- capital
- the city where a country's government meets
- planned city
- a city whose roads, buildings and parks were designed before it was built
- avenue
- a wide street, often lined with trees
- memorial
- something built to help people remember a person or an event
- observatory
- a place built for watching and measuring the sky
- sandstone
- a rock made of grains of sand pressed together, often used for building
Discovery challenge
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New Delhi is the capital of which country?
New Delhi is the capital city of which country?
New Delhi is the capital of which country?
- India
- Nepal
- Bangladesh
Show the answer
India
India! New Delhi is its capital.
New Delhi is the capital of India, inside the larger city of Delhi.
India; New Delhi lies within the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
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What is India Gate?
What kind of structure is India Gate?
India Gate, dedicated in 1931, is what kind of structure?
- A big stone arch
- A tall glass tower
- A long bridge
Show the answer
A big stone arch
A big stone arch! It is 42 meters tall.
A 42-meter sandstone arch, a memorial designed by Edwin Lutyens.
A 42 m sandstone memorial arch commemorating Indian soldiers of the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
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Who lives in Rashtrapati Bhavan?
Who lives in Rashtrapati Bhavan today?
The former Viceroy's House on Raisina Hill is now the residence of whom?
- The President of India
- A zookeeper
- Nobody
Show the answer
The President of India
The President of India! The palace has about 340 rooms.
The President of India; it was built as the Viceroy's House.
The President of India; Lord Irwin was its first occupant in 1929.
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Why did the builders pick a hill for New Delhi?
Why did the planners choose Raisina Hill instead of land in the north?
Why was the Kingsway Camp site rejected in favor of Raisina Hill?
- The low land near the river could flood
- The hill was closer to the sea
- The hill had snow
Show the answer
The low land near the river could flood
The land near the river could flood. The hill was higher.
Land near the Yamuna River could flood; Raisina Hill was higher and drained better.
It was judged too vulnerable to Yamuna floods; Raisina Hill offered spacious high ground and better drainage.
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Which month has New Delhi's hottest days?
Which month has the hottest days in New Delhi, on average?
In which month do days at the Safdarjung station average about 39.8 °C (1901–2000)?
- January
- May
- November
Show the answer
May
May! Days are very hot.
May, when days average about 40 °C.
May; June days are almost as hot, at 39.4 °C.
Nearby places
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Watch
Landmark
Humayun's Tomb
Humayun's Tomb in Delhi was built in the 1560s for the Mughal emperor Humayun, with support from his son, the emperor Akbar. UNESCO calls it the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent, and says its ideas led, about 80 years later, to the Taj Mahal. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
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Watch
Landmark
Red Fort
The Red Fort is a palace inside giant red sandstone walls in Delhi, India. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had it built between 1639 and 1648 as the heart of his new capital city. Its walls are 23 meters high, and inside are halls of white marble, gardens and a long water channel.
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Watch
Landmark
Lotus Temple
The Lotus Temple, officially the Bahá'í House of Worship, stands in southern New Delhi, India. Opened in 1986, it takes its shape from a lotus flower, with 45 white concrete petals covered in white marble. It rises more than 34 meters and is surrounded by nine pools and large gardens.
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Watch
City
Delhi
Delhi is a huge city in northern India beside the Yamuna River, and a capital of kingdoms and empires for centuries. Rulers built city after city here for almost a thousand years, from the Qutb Minar tower to the walled city of Old Delhi and its Red Fort. New Delhi, India's capital, is one part of Delhi. Its 2011 census counted almost 16.8 million people.
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Watch
Landmark
Qutb Minar
The Qutb Minar is a tower of red and buff sandstone in Delhi, India, 72.5 meters tall. It was begun around the year 1200, beside one of the oldest mosques in northern India, and later rulers added to it and repaired it. Today it stands in a park of old ruins that is a World Heritage Site.
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Landmark
Fatehpur Sikri
Fatehpur Sikri, the "City of Victory," was built on a ridge near Agra, India, by the Mughal emperor Akbar from 1571. It was his capital until 1585. Its red sandstone palaces, halls and great mosque still stand, and its gateway, the Buland Darwaza, is 40 meters tall.
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Watch
Landmark
Agra Fort
Agra Fort is a huge red sandstone fortress beside the Yamuna River in Agra, India. The Mughal emperor Akbar began it in 1565. Its walls, about 2.5 kilometers around, protect palaces, halls and mosques added by later emperors. It was both an army base and a royal home.
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Watch
Landmark
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white marble tomb in Agra, India, beside the Yamuna River. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had it built in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. More than 20,000 workers spent about 22 years on the tomb, its gardens, a mosque and a great gateway.
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Country
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City
Delhi
Delhi is a huge city in northern India beside the Yamuna River, and a capital of kingdoms and empires for centuries. Rulers built city after city here for almost a thousand years, from the Qutb Minar tower to the walled city of Old Delhi and its Red Fort. New Delhi, India's capital, is one part of Delhi. Its 2011 census counted almost 16.8 million people.
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Watch
Landmark
Red Fort
The Red Fort is a palace inside giant red sandstone walls in Delhi, India. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had it built between 1639 and 1648 as the heart of his new capital city. Its walls are 23 meters high, and inside are halls of white marble, gardens and a long water channel.
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Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States, on the Potomac River. It was planned from scratch in the 1790s, with wide avenues, the U.S. Capitol, the White House and a long green park called the National Mall. About 690,000 people lived there in 2020.
- Watch Geography Capital cities A capital is the city where a country's government is based. Many capitals grew up over hundreds of years beside rivers and trade routes. A few, like Brasília and Canberra, were built from scratch, and some countries share out their capital's jobs among two or three cities.
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Kathmandu
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate New Delhi in northern India, within the city of Delhi.
- Explain what a planned city is and how New Delhi's plan joins grand views with trees and gardens.
- Describe how Rashtrapati Bhavan was built, including the work of thousands of laborers and stone-cutters.
- Read temperature and rainfall averages to describe hot summers and a short rainy season.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- New Delhi was drawn on paper before it was built. If you could plan a new town, what would you put at its center?
- The planners moved the city to higher ground because the land near the river could flood. Why do people need to think about floods when they build?
- About 23,000 workers built Rashtrapati Bhavan. Whose work do we remember when we look at a famous building?
Try at home or in class
- Plan a city on graph paper: draw one wide main avenue, a cross street, a big building at one end and a gate at the other, then line the streets with dots for trees.
- Make a sundial: push a pencil upright into modeling clay on a paper plate in a sunny spot, and mark the shadow's tip every hour to see how the Sun seems to move across the sky.
Key vocabulary: capital, planned city, avenue, memorial, observatory, sandstone
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Natural Earth vector data , Natural Earth (NACIS) (Public domain)
- Making of Rashtrapati Bhavan , Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's Secretariat, India)
- Amrit Udyan , Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's Secretariat, India)
- Delhi - A Heritage City (Tentative List) , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- India Gate , Incredible India (Ministry of Tourism, Government of India)
- New Delhi (Delhi, India): population statistics (censuses 1991-2011) , City Population (Thomas Brinkhoff), from the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India
- Interview with Dr Vikas Kumar: Over 100 km of new lines will be added to Delhi Metro by 2030 , Indian Infrastructure
- New Delhi (Safdarjung): climatological information , World Meteorological Organization, World Weather Information Service
- Rashtrapati Bhavan: Main Building , Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's Secretariat, India)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.