Humayun mausoleum
| Humayun mausoleum | |
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UNESCO world heritage 
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Humayun mausoleum - the tomb, erected without framing minarets , rises in the midst of a spacious, geometrically laid out garden with four watercourses ( Char-Bagh ) |
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| National territory: |
 India
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| Type: | Culture |
| Criteria : | (ii) (iv) |
| Reference No .: | 232 |
| UNESCO region : | Asia and Pacific |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 1993 (session 17) |
The Humayun mausoleum in Delhi , India , is the tomb of Nasiruddin Muhammad Humayun (1508–1556), the second ruler of the Great Mughal Empire of India after Babur ; he reigned from 1530 to 1540 and again from 1555 Since 1993, the building complex is till 1556. World Heritage Site of UNESCO recognized. In 2003, restoration work was completed, financially supported by the Aga Khan Culture Trust , which enabled water to flow again in the garden's canals.
location
The mausoleum was originally located near the Yamuna River , which later changed its course. The mausoleum is now in the Nizamuddin- East district, at the intersection of Lodi Road and Mathura Road . At the time of the slave dynasty , the area belonged to the fortress KiloKheri , the capital of Sultan Kequbad , son of Nasiruddin (1268–1287). In addition to the main Humayuns burial site, the site also includes other buildings and grave monuments of Mughal architecture - including the burial of his barber.
history
Construction began in 1562 (according to other sources, 1564) on the instructions of Haji Begum (also Hamida Banu Begum), Humayun's widow and mother of Akbar I (1542–1605), and the construction took eight years. The client kept a close eye on the work and even set up camp on site. The architects of the building are said to have been Sayyed Muhammad ibn Mirak Ghiyathuddin and his father Mirak Ghiyathuddin , who came from Herat in Afghanistan.
The site later served as a refuge for the last Mughal ruler of India, Bahadur Shah II (1775–1862), who was captured by the British in 1857 at this location.
architecture
materials
In contrast to the later mausoleums of the Mughal period with their core made of bricks , the Humayun mausoleum consists of only roughly hewn rubble stones , which were rarely found along the muddy-sandy river banks of the Yamuna and therefore taken from demolition buildings or from afar had to be brought up. After completion of the core building, the walls were clad with panels made of different colored sandstone or - for cost reasons in later or less important buildings or components - simply plastered and painted in color. Marble occurs only in the cladding of the main dome and in the white braided ribbon inlay that surrounds the entire main building.
Gate construction
Due to the protruding side wings, the very representative gate structure of the Humayun mausoleum differs from all other gate structures of the Mughal tombs of India. The side niches - placed one on top of the other - the large central archway ( iwan ) and the small, attached pavilions ( chhatris ) are elements that will also be found in later gateways. The entire structure is clad with slabs of red and yellowish-beige sandstone from Rajasthan.
The architectural decoration is limited to two six-pointed stars with plastically protruding rosettes in the spandrels of the archway and to narrow ribbons with incrustations made of white marble that surround the arch spandrels.
Funerary monument
Exterior construction
The central grave building with high Iwan arches above the axis cross stands on an approx. 7 m high platform, which is visually loosened up by a multitude of arcade arches with surrounding braided bands. On a drum seated, bulbous and small Chhatris Ground surrounded outer dome was not common at the time in the Persian home of the architect, but can be found in previous and contemporaneous buildings of Central Asia (z. B. Gur-e-Amir in Samarkand ). A ball stick ( jamur ) raises the dome in the center. The central main building is surrounded by four smaller annex buildings - sloping at the corners and also provided with pavilions. The visible structure consists of red and beige sandstone from Rajasthan; only the cladding of the main dome and some wall applications are made of white marble. The domes of the smaller side chhatris are clad with gray slate, a material that can also be found in the decor of the arched gussets of the entrance portals. White, unreliefed marble slabs joined to form large decorative fields play an important role in the overall picture.
inside rooms
The octagonal central room, which opens over two floors, is bathed in diffuse light through the Jali windows. It only houses the cenotaph Humayun standing on a small, but with intricate geometric stone incrustations (stars and octagons) made of white and black marble (the actual tomb of the ruler is below ground level). The room octagon with galleries and Jali windows is carried over into the cupola circle by trumpets with simple muqarnas decoration; the flat inner dome itself is - as with many Indian tombs - left completely without decoration.
The stucco work with floral wall paintings or even stone inlay work usual in the later Mughal tombs ( Akbar mausoleum , Itimad-ud-Daula mausoleum , Taj Mahal , Bibi-Ka-Maqbara ) is completely absent from the Humayun grave monument - apart from the small cenotaph platform. Only the large wall niches or galleries with their Jali windows and the different colors of the sandstone facings provide architectural and visual relaxation.
In the two-storey side annex rooms there are more than 150 tombs of family members and distant descendants of the ruler. Thus, the Humayun mausoleum - more than the later buildings of the Mughal era - can be described as the burial place of the dynasty.
garden
The mausoleum rises in the midst of a geometrically laid out park in the Char Bagh style with narrow water channels and thus referring to the paradise garden described in the Koran - the first of its kind in India. As with later tombs from the Mughal period, the stone slab covered paths to the central tomb are raised compared to the ground level of the park, which offers great advantages especially during the monsoon season and also keeps animals away; At the same time, however, they are - to preserve the hierarchy - lower than the lower platform of the tomb.
meaning
The first Mughal tomb in India, which was built without framing minarets , is one of the most magnificent historical buildings in Delhi and on the whole subcontinent due to its size and elegant architecture in the Persian style. Its imposing architecture leaves the comparatively compact tombs of the Lodi dynasty far behind and points ahead to the Akbar mausoleum in Sikandra and the Taj Mahal in Agra .
gallery
Humayun mausoleum, tomb construction
Side view of the Humayun mausoleum
Gardens with water channels
Tomb of Humayun's barber
See also
Other important tombs of the Mughal period are:
- Akbar Mausoleum , Sikandra, India (ca.1605–1613)
- Itimad-ud-Daula-Mausoleum , Agra, India (ca.1622–1628)
- Jahangir Mausoleum , Lahore, Pakistan (ca.1627–1637)
- Taj Mahal , Agra, India (ca.1631–1648 / 53)
- Bibi-Ka-Maqbara , Aurangabad, India (approx. 1651–1661)
- Safdarjung Mausoleum , Delhi, India (approx. 1753–1754)
literature
- Catherine B. Asher: Architecture of Mughal India (= The New Cambridge History of India. 1, 4). Reprinted edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge u. a. 2003, ISBN 0-521-26728-5 .
- Ajit S. Bhalla: Royal Tombs of India. 13th to 18th Century. Mapin Publishing et al. a., Ahmedabad 2009, ISBN 978-0-944142-89-9 .
- Hermann Forkl, Johannes Kalter, Thomas Leisten, Margareta Pavaloi (eds.): The gardens of Islam. Edition H. Mayer, Stuttgart a. a. 1993.
- Bamber Gascoigne: The Mughals. Splendor and greatness of Mohammedan princes in India. Special edition. Prisma-Verlag, Gütersloh 1987, ISBN 978-3-570-09930-8 .
- Markus Hattstein, Peter Delius (Ed.): Islam. Art and architecture. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89508-846-3 , p. 475 f.
- Ebba Koch : Mughal Architecture. An Outline of Its History and Development (1526-1858). Prestel, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-7913-1070-4 .
Web links
- Humayun's Tomb - ArchNet (engl.)
- UNESCO site to Humayun's Mausoleum
- Video with photos of the entire system
Cultural heritage: Ajanta Rock Temple (1983) | Ellora Cave Temple (1983) | Red Fort in Agra (1983) | Taj Mahal (1983) | Konarak Sun Temple (1984) | Mahabalipuram Temple District (1984) | Churches and Monasteries of Goa (1986) | Khajuraho Temple District (1986) | Temple District of Hampi (1986) | Mughal city of Fatehpur Sikri (1986) | Pattadakal Temple Complex (1987) | Elephanta Caves (1987) | Great Temples of the Chola Dynasty (1987) | Buddhist shrine near Sanchi (1989) | Humayun's Mausoleum (1993) | Qutb Complex (1993) | Mountain Railways in India (1999) | Mahabodhi Temple of Bodhgaya (2002) | Bhimbetka Caves (2003) | Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (2004) | Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park (2004) | Red Fort in Delhi (2007) | The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur (2010) | Mountain Fortresses of Rajasthan (2013) | Rani Ki Vav (2014) | The architectural work of Le Corbusier : Capitol Complex in Chandigarh (2016) | Nalanda Mahavihara Archaeological Site (2016) | Old City of Ahmedabad (2017) | Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensembles in Mumbai (2018) | Old City of Jaipur (2019)
Natural heritage: Kaziranga National Park (1985) | Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (1985) | Keoladeo National Park (1985) | Sundarbans National Park (1987) | Nanda Devi National Park and Valley of Flowers National Park (1988) | Western Ghats (2012) | Great Himalaya National Park (2014)
Cultural / natural heritage: Kangchenjunga National Park (2016)
Coordinates: 28 ° 35 '36 " N , 77 ° 15' 2.6" E