Emperor Humayun's Garden Tomb

The South Gate

The South Gate is a quartzite darwaza with red sandstone dressing.¹ S.A.A. Naqvi continues his description.

[The South Gate is] 52 feet high, stands on a podium approached by a flight of five steps from the old road level and is double-storyed. The ground floor comprises a central octagonal domed hall with rectangular wings; the first floor consists of square and oblong rooms. The outer angles are adorned with octagonal pinnacles topped with lotus design. The gate is flanked externally by seven-walls with arched recesses.²

The South Gate was the original and intended ceremonial entrance to Humayun's Garden Tomb.³

1. S.A.A. Naqvi, Humayun's Tomb and Adjacent Buildings (Calcutta : Government of India Press, 1947), 6.

2. ibid, 7.

3. Catherine B. Asher, Architecture of Mughal India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 45.