Chor Minar or 'Tower of Thieves' is a 13th-century

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

with 225 holes, situated just off

Aurobindo Marg Sri Aurobindo Marg or Aurobindo Marg, is an important South Delhi north-south arterial road connecting historic Safdarjung's Tomb to Qutab Minar. The road is named for Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh; the Delhi campus of Sri Aurobindo Ashram ...

in the

Hauz Khas Hauz Khas is a neighborhood in South Delhi, its heart being the historic Hauz Khas Complex. Well known in medieval times, the Hauz Khas village has buildings built around the reservoir. There are remnants of Islamic architecture roughly color ...

area, in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

.Chor Minar
/ref> The Chor Minar is nearly 700 to 800 years old. it's also situated in narnaul Haryana near dhosi hills 120 km away from Delhi

History

It was built under the rule of

Alauddin Khalji Alauddin Khalji (; ), born Ali Gurshasp, was a ruler from the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the Indian subcontinent. Alauddin instituted a number of significant administrative changes in the Delhi Sultanate, related to revenue ...

, of the

Khalji dynasty The Khalji or Khilji dynasty was a Turco-Afghan dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate for three decades between 1290 and 1320. It was the second dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate which covered large swaths of the Indian subcontinent.

(1290–1320) in the thirteenth century. Historians suggests that the Khalji king slaughtered a settlement of

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

people, nearby, to stop them from joining with their brethren in another Mongol settlement in Delhi, the present day locality of 'Mongolpuri'. During the raid of Ali Beg, Tartaq and Targhi (1305), 8,000 Mongol prisoners were executed and their heads displayed is the towers around

Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ...

Purpose

According to local legends, it was a 'tower of beheading', where the severed heads of thieves were displayed on spear through its 225 holes, to act as a deterrent to thieves. In case the heads exceeded the number of holes, the less important heads were piled in a

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

outside the

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

References

External links

Image of Chor Minar
{{Delhi Monuments of National Importance in Delhi History of Delhi Architecture of the Khalji dynasty Round towers Minarets in India