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Qutb Minar
The Qutb Minar is a very tall stone tower in Delhi, India. It has five levels with balconies. Its red and yellow stone is carved with patterns and writing.
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.
Begun by Qutb ud-Din Aibak around 1199–1202 at the corner of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and extended by later sultans, the Qutb Minar rises 72.5 m in five fluted storeys, tapering from 14.32 m to 2.75 m in diameter. UNESCO calls it the tallest masonry tower in India, at the heart of a complex that records the architecture of the first Islamic rulers in India.
Photo: IM3847, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover the Qutb Minar
The Qutb Minar is a tower made of stone.
It is in Delhi, a very big city in India. It is taller than the trees and the old walls around it. Visitors come to see it.
The Qutb Minar stands at the southern edge of Delhi, India's capital region, in a park full of ruined buildings that are hundreds of years old. A minar, or minaret, is a tall tower built at a mosque, from which people were called to prayer.
This one is 72.5 meters tall. It is 14.32 meters wide at the bottom and only 2.75 meters wide at the top. UNESCO says it is the tallest masonry tower in India, meaning the tallest tower built of stone blocks. Together with the buildings around it, it became a World Heritage Site in 1993.
The minar stands within the Qutb complex at the southern fringe of New Delhi, in the eastern part of Lal Kot, which ICOMOS describes as the first of the seven cities of Delhi, founded by the Tomar ruler Anang Pal in 1060. UNESCO inscribed 'Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi' in 1993 under criterion (iv), as an outstanding example of the architecture and art of early Islamic India.
The tower is built of red and buff sandstone, 72.5 m high, tapering from 14.32 m in diameter at the base to 2.75 m at the top. UNESCO calls it the tallest masonry tower in India. Besides calling people to prayer from its balconies, it had a monumental role: ICOMOS notes a later inscription in Nagari script that calls it a victory monument.
- Where
- Mehrauli, at the southern edge of Delhi, India
- Height
- 72.5 m
- Width
- 14.32 m at the base, 2.75 m at the top
- World Heritage
- Qutb Minar and its Monuments, 1993
Eight centuries of building and repair
A ruler began building the tower about 800 years ago.
Later rulers made it taller. Lightning and an earthquake damaged it, and each time people fixed it.
The Qutb Minar was begun around 1200 by a ruler named Qutb ud-Din Aibak. He had already started a great mosque on the site in 1192. Later, the ruler Iltutmish carried on the work.
Over the centuries, the tower was struck by lightning in 1326 and 1368, and the rulers of the day repaired it. During the reign of Firuz Shah Tughluq, its top storey was replaced with two new ones, giving it five storeys. An earthquake in 1803 damaged it again, and it was repaired between 1805 and 1828.
Sources date the start differently: UNESCO's statement gives 1199, while ICOMOS's 1993 evaluation says 'around 1202'. Both name Qutb ud-Din Aibak; UNESCO says he and Iltutmish built the minar at the south-eastern corner of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, which ICOMOS dates to 1192–1198. UNESCO describes the mosque as the classic western Asian model introduced to India, a courtyard enclosed by arcades with carved pillars, incorporating temple elements such as the carved pillars and cladding characteristic of Hindu and Jain temples, and notes that the builders drew on their Ghurid homeland.
Lightning struck the tower in 1326 and 1368; Muhammad bin Tughluq and Firuz Shah Tughluq repaired it, the latter replacing the original fourth and top storey with two storeys. In 1503 Sikandar Lodi restored and enlarged the upper storeys. After major earthquake damage in 1803 it was repaired in 1805–1828; later work followed in 1920, 1944–1949, 1971–1972 and 1989–1992, replacing bulging or damaged facing stones and strengthening the foundations and core.
Sandstone flutes and carved bands
The tower is made of red and yellow-brown stone.
The lowest levels have stripes that stick out, some pointed and some round. Bands of carved writing go around it.
The tower is built of blocks of red and buff (pale yellow-brown) sandstone. Its sides are shaped into ridges called flutes. On the first storey, pointed and rounded flutes take turns; on the second, all the flutes are rounded; on the third, all are pointed.
Between the storeys are decorated balconies and bands of carved writing. Inside, the tower has an inner core, which builders strengthened in repairs as recently as 1989–1992.
ICOMOS describes a column of red and buff sandstone blocks in five storeys, separated by richly decorated balconies with pendentives and inscribed bands. The three earliest storeys are each fluted differently, the lowest with alternating angular and rounded flutes, the second with rounded flutes only, the third with angular flutes only, yet the vertical alignment continues through all three. UNESCO notes that the tower is eloquently carved with inscriptional bands and has projecting balconies from which the muezzins called the faithful to prayer.
The tower was originally crowned by a cupola that fell in an earthquake; a replacement in a late Mughal style, added in the early 19th century, was judged so out of keeping that it was taken down in 1848 and now stands on the lawn to the south-east. In the 1944–1949 repairs, damaged facing stones were replaced using lime mortar and stainless-steel dowels.
A mosque, an iron pillar and an unfinished tower
Next to the tower are old stone arches, like giant doorways.
There is also a very old iron pillar that has not rusted away. Nearby is the bottom of another tower that was never finished.
Around the tower are the ruins of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, begun in 1192, the oldest surviving mosque in northern India. In the photo, its tall, broken stone arches stand on each side of the minar.
In the mosque's courtyard stands an iron pillar more than 1,500 years old, with writing in Sanskrit from the 300s. It has hardly rusted. To the south is the Alai Darwaza, a carved gateway built in 1311. Its builder, Alauddin Khalji, also began a second tower meant to be twice as big as the Qutb Minar, but it was never finished.
The complex includes the Quwwat-ul-Islam ('Might of Islam') mosque with its five-arched screen, the tomb of Iltutmish (built in 1235), which UNESCO says began the tradition of royal tombs in India, the madrasa of Alauddin Khalji, the Alai Darwaza gateway of 1311, and the unfinished Alai Minar, planned at twice the scale of the Qutb Minar, whose first storey stands 25 m high.
The iron pillar was brought from elsewhere in India. Its 4th-century Sanskrit inscription describes a ruler named Chandra, believed to be the Gupta king Chandragupta II (375–413). It is 7.02 m long, 0.93 m of it below ground, made of hundreds of small wrought-iron blooms welded together; ICOMOS attributes its remarkable lack of corrosion to the high corrosion resistance of wrought iron, Delhi's climate and other factors.
- Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque
- begun 1192, the earliest surviving mosque in northern India
- Iron pillar
- 7.02 m long, with a 4th-century Sanskrit inscription
- Alai Darwaza
- ceremonial gateway, built 1311
- Alai Minar
- unfinished; its first storey stands 25 m high
The Qutb Minar today
Today, the tower stands in a green park.
Visitors walk along the paths and take photos. Workers take care of the old stones.
The Qutb Minar and the monuments around it belong to the Government of India and are looked after by the Archaeological Survey of India, which protects the country's important old places. The Survey looks after the site through a conservation plan made every year.
In the photo, visitors walk toward the tower along a garden path, and one is kneeling to take a picture. The arches of the old mosque frame the tower on both sides.
The complex is owned by the Government of India and managed by the Archaeological Survey of India under an annual conservation and development plan, with the surrounding area shared among several Delhi authorities. UNESCO describes its state of conservation as stable and its repairs as respecting the original construction and ornament; ICOMOS noted in 1993 that many of the minar's facing stones are not original in age, but were replaced with scrupulous attention to technique, tools and materials.
The photo looks along the garden path to the minar, with ruined arches of the old mosque on either side, a pillared colonnade on the left and visitors on the path.
Amazing facts
-
An old iron pillar near the tower has hardly rusted in over 1,500 years.
The iron pillar in the courtyard, with writing from the 300s, has hardly rusted.
ICOMOS attributes the iron pillar's remarkable lack of corrosion to the high corrosion resistance of wrought iron, Delhi's climate and other factors.
-
A small dome once added to the top of the tower now sits on the grass nearby!
A small dome added to the top in the early 1800s was taken down in 1848. It now stands on the lawn nearby.
An early-19th-century cupola in a late Mughal style was judged so incongruous that it was removed in 1848; it now stands on the lawn south-east of the minar.
-
Someone started an even bigger tower nearby, but it was never finished.
Alauddin Khalji began the Alai Minar, planned to be twice as big as the Qutb Minar. Only its first storey, 25 meters high, was built.
The Alai Minar, envisaged at twice the scale of the Qutb Minar, was never finished (UNESCO calls it incomplete); its first storey stands 25 m high.
-
Each of the bottom three levels has a different pattern of stripes.
The first three storeys each have a different kind of flutes: mixed, all rounded, and all pointed.
The three earliest storeys are fluted alternately angular and rounded, rounded only and angular only, with continuous vertical alignment.
Words to know
- minaret
- a tall, slender tower built at a mosque, from which people are called to prayer
- sandstone
- a rock made of grains of sand pressed together
- storey
- one level of a building (also spelled story)
- flute
- a long ridge or groove carved down a column or tower
- sultan
- a title used by some Muslim rulers
- wrought iron
- iron that has been heated and hammered into shape
Discovery challenge
-
What is the Qutb Minar made of?
What stone is the Qutb Minar built from?
Of what material are the minar's blocks?
- Red and buff sandstone
- Glass
- Wood
Show the answer
Red and buff sandstone
Red and yellow-brown stone called sandstone!
Red and buff sandstone.
Red and buff sandstone blocks.
-
How many levels does the tower have?
How many storeys does the Qutb Minar have today?
How many storeys does the minar have in its present form?
- 5
- 2
- 20
Show the answer
5
Five levels!
Five, since Firuz Shah Tughluq replaced the top storey with two.
Five: the original top storey was replaced by two under Firuz Shah Tughluq.
-
What stands near the tower and hardly rusts?
Which old object in the mosque courtyard is famous for hardly rusting?
Which object in the complex bears a 4th-century Sanskrit inscription?
- An iron pillar
- A copper bell
- A steel bridge
Show the answer
An iron pillar
An iron pillar!
The iron pillar, more than 1,500 years old.
The iron pillar, naming a ruler Chandra, believed to be Chandragupta II.
-
What damaged the top of the tower long ago?
What struck the tower in 1326 and 1368?
What struck the tower in 1368, before Firuz Shah Tughluq's repairs?
- Lightning
- A flood
- A volcano
Show the answer
Lightning
Lightning!
Lightning, both times; the rulers repaired it.
Lightning, in 1368 (and earlier in 1326).
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Delhi and describe the Qutb Minar as a sandstone minaret begun around 1200.
- Explain how the tower was added to and repaired by later rulers over many centuries.
- Describe other monuments in the complex, such as the iron pillar and the unfinished Alai Minar.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a tall tower need repairs again and again over 800 years?
- Why do you think a ruler might start a tower twice as big as an older one?
- How can repairers replace old stones but keep a monument true to its past?
Try at home or in class
- Fold a sheet of paper into pleats to make 'flutes', roll it into a tube and see how the ridges catch the light.
- Stack paper cups of different sizes into a tower that gets narrower as it goes up, and add paper-strip 'balconies' between levels.
Key vocabulary: minaret, sandstone, storey, flute, sultan, wrought iron
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- World Heritage List: The Qutb Minar (No 233), ICOMOS evaluation, October 1993 , ICOMOS, via UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- 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.