Jahanpanah Fort, Delhi

Jahanpanah was the fourth medieval city of Delhi established in 1326–1327 by Muhammad bin Tughlaq, of the Delhi Sultanate. To address the constant threat of the Mongols, Tughlaq built the fortified city of Jahanpanah subsuming the Adilabad fort that had been built in the 14th century and also all the establishments lying between Qila Rai Pithora and Siri Fort. Neither the city nor the fort has survived. Many reasons have been offered for such a situation. One of which is stated as the idiosyncratic rule of Mohammed bin Tughlaq when inexplicably he shifted the capital to Daulatabad in the Deccan and came back to Delhi soon after.

The ruins of the city’s walls are even now discerned in the road between Siri to Qutub Minar, Satpula and many other nearby locations; at some sections, as seen at Satpula, the fort walls were large enough to have few in built store rooms to stack provisions and armory. The mystery of the city’s precincts (complex) has unfolded over the years with later day excavations revealing a large number of monuments in the villages and colonies of South Delhi. Due to compulsions of urban expansion of the Capital City of Delhi, Jahanpanah is now part of the upscale urban development of South Delhi. The village and the wealth of ruins scattered all around are now enclosed by South Delhi suburbs.