New Delhi was built as a statement. In 1911 the British announced that the capital of India would move here from Calcutta, and over the next twenty years architects led by Edwin Lutyens laid out a new city of wide avenues, roundabouts and white colonnades. Yet tucked between those avenues are places far older and far more alive than the imperial plan: a medieval stepwell, an eighteenth-century observatory, a busy Hindu temple and one of the great Sikh shrines of the world. This walk starts in the white circle of Connaught Place and loops south and west through them all, ending at a quiet cathedral near the Gole Dak Khana roundabout. It covers about four kilometers on flat ground, and it is one of the most surprising self-guided walking tours in India, a few hours in which you cross centuries and several faiths without ever leaving the center of the city.

Before you set off

Plan for about an hour and a half of walking, and three hours or more with stops, especially if you eat at the gurudwara's community kitchen. The ground is flat, but pavements can be uneven and busy, and crossing the big roads takes patience: use the crossings and pedestrian signals, and take your time at the roundabouts. The best season is from October to March, and the best time of day is early morning, when the air is cooler and the streets are calm. From April to June the heat is fierce, and the monsoon brings heavy rain in summer, while winter can bring fog and poor air quality, so check the forecast and the air quality before you set out. Carry water and a scarf or bandana: at Bangla Sahib you must cover your head and remove your shoes, and at Hanuman Mandir you will remove your shoes too. Dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, for the places of worship. Jantar Mantar and Agrasen ki Baoli are protected monuments with their own hours, and Jantar Mantar charges for entry, so check before you go.

Connaught Place Inner Circle

You are standing in the Inner Circle of Connaught Place, the commercial heart of New Delhi. Look around at the ring of white, two-story buildings, with their tall columns and deep, shady arcades running all the way around. The circle was built between 1929 and 1933 and named after the Duke of Connaught, a son of Queen Victoria. Its architect, Robert Tor Russell, is often said to have taken his inspiration from the curving Georgian terraces of the English city of Bath. The idea was to give the new capital a grand shopping district, and the arcades were designed to keep shoppers out of the sun and the rain. The buildings are divided into blocks, each marked with a letter, which makes it easy to arrange to meet someone here. In the middle of the circle lies Central Park, a green lawn that sits on top of Rajiv Chowk, one of the busiest metro stations in the city, and above it flies an enormous Indian flag. The circle has been officially renamed Rajiv Chowk, but almost everyone still calls it CP. Take a slow walk under the arcades. Then leave the circle on its southeast side, cross the outer ring with care, and head southeast toward Hailey Road, where the stepwell hides among office towers, about twelve minutes.

Agrasen ki Baoli

Walk through the gate and stand at the top of the steps, and the city disappears. In front of you, a long, narrow flight of stone steps drops down between high walls, more than a hundred of them, into the earth. This is Agrasen ki Baoli, a stepwell, and it is one of the most startling sights in central Delhi, all the more so because modern office blocks loom right over its walls. Stepwells were built across northern and western India to reach water through the long dry seasons. People walked down to fill their pots, and the deep stone chambers stayed cool even at the height of summer, so they were also places to rest, meet and escape the heat. Look at the walls on either side, lined with rows of arched niches on several levels. Nobody knows exactly when this one was built. Tradition links it to a legendary king called Agrasen, but the structure you see is generally thought to date from the medieval period, perhaps the fourteenth century, and to have been rebuilt over the years. Today the bottom is mostly dry, and pigeons and bats swoop between the arches. Walk down if you like, slowly, and feel the temperature drop. Then head back out and walk west, crossing Kasturba Gandhi Marg, to the broad avenue of Janpath, about ten minutes.

Janpath Promenade

agrasen ki baoli stepwell delhi You have reached Janpath, one of the main avenues of New Delhi. Its name means the People's Path, but under the British it was called Queen's Way, because it crosses the great ceremonial avenue once known as King's Way, which runs from the presidential palace to India Gate. That right-angled meeting of avenues is the backbone of Lutyens's plan, and you are standing on one of its arms. Look at the width of the street, the trees lining its sides and the low buildings set back from the road: this was a city designed to impress, with plenty of space and green. The northern end of Janpath, near Connaught Place, has a very different mood. It is famous for its lively street market, with rows of stalls selling clothes, jewelry, bags, carpets and handicrafts, some of them from Tibet and other Himalayan regions, and bargaining is expected. Along the avenue you will also find some of the city's old landmarks, among them the stately Imperial hotel, built in the 1930s. If you are here early, the stalls may still be shuttered, and you will have the shady footpath almost to yourself. From here, cross Janpath with care and walk west to Sansad Marg, Parliament Street, where the entrance to Jantar Mantar is waiting, about five minutes away.