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The fortress of Tughluqabad stands on a rocky hill, 8-km
away from the Qutub Minar
Complex, on the Qutub-Badarpur Road. Built By Ghiyath-ud-Din
Tughluq, it constitutes the third city of Delhi.
Roughly
octagonal on plan with a perimeter of 6.5-km, its 10 to 15m high rubble
built walls are provided with bastions and gates at intervals. On its
south was a vast reservoir created by erecting bunds between hills to the
east. A causeway connected it with Ghiyath-ud-Din's tomb, standing amidst
waters, while a wide embankment near its south eastern-corner gave access
to the fortress of Adilabad, built a little later opposite on another
hill.
Tughlaqabad was divided mainly into three portions. To the east of the
present entrance from the Qutub-Badarpur road, a rectangular area with
high walls and bastions served as the citadel. A wider area immediately to
the west, similarly bounded by rubble walls and bastions, housed the
palaces.
Beyond this to the north lay the city, now marked by ruins of houses.
Streets in the city, some of which can be traced even now, ran in a
grid-pattern from gates on one side to those on the opposite side. Inside
the citadel-enclosure is a tower known as Bijai-Mandal and remains of
several halls, including a long underground passage.
Near the embankment connecting it with
Adilabad are sluice gates,
through which water was controlled for irrigating the fields now.
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