Qutub Minar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in India, standing at 238 feet tall. It was built in the late 12th century by Qutb-ud-din Aibak to surpass the Jam Minaret in Afghanistan and demonstrate devotion to Islam. The minaret is covered in Quranic inscriptions and was used to call the faithful to prayer. It was built using red sandstone bricks recycled from destroyed Jain temples. The minaret has been damaged several times over the years and is now closed to the public due to safety concerns.
Qutub Minar is a huge minaret in India. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has been since 1993. Qutub Minar has the distinction of being the tallest brick minaret in the world, at 238 feet (72m).
The site where Qutub Minar now stands appears to have once been the site of several Jain temples. Some Jain religious iconography can still be found in the area, mostly depicting various tirthankars of the Jain pantheon. The Jain temples were eventually destroyed during the Muslim period and the stones recycled to help build the Qutub Minar and some of the surrounding structures.
The Qutub Minar was directly inspired by the Jam Minaret, the second tallest brick minaret in the world, in Afghanistan. Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who was the first follower of Islam to rule Delhi, wanted to build the Qutub Minar to surpass the Minaret of Jam, to demonstrate his devotion to the new religion. He started building the Qutub Minar in the late 12th century but only got around to building the foundations before he died. Iltutmish, who succeeded him, continued to work on the Qutub Minar, adding three more stories before he died. Finally, in the mid-14th century, Firuz Shah Tughluq completed the minaret.
The entire Qutub Minar is covered in various inscriptions from the Quran and is made of red sandstone bricks, as is the minaret of Jam. The Qutub Minar, like all minarets, was used as a place to launch the call to prayer, calling the faithful to the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque. It also acted as a highly visible symbol throughout Delhi that Islam had arrived in the region and reigned victorious over Hinduism.
Although the Qutub Minar used to be open to the public, it is now closed. In the 1980s, a number of people were killed when an electrical fault inside the minaret sparked a stampede. There are 378 steps leading to the top of the Qutub Minar, and before its closure it was a very popular site, both for tourists and those trying to commit suicide by jumping. A popular legend also claimed that anyone who managed to put their arms around the minaret while leaning on it would have fulfilled any wish, although this practice was precluded even before its closure, due to the damage caused by sweat to the sandstone bricks.
The Qutub Minar has been damaged several times over the years. At first the minaret was badly damaged in a big earthquake and the damage was repaired by Firoz Shah. It was damaged again in the early 16th century but was again rebuilt by Sikandar Lodi. In the late 18th century another earthquake damaged the minaret, and this time it was a Major Smith who rebuilt it, replacing part of the upper pavilion with a pavilion of his own design, although that new pavilion was removed in the mid-19th century.
The Qutub Minar can be seen from virtually every part of Delhi and is a very popular destination for visitors to the city. It is impressive in its scope, its historical importance and the beauty of the scriptures carved into it. Its height makes it the largest free-standing tower in the world, beating the Leaning Tower of Pisa by a good margin, and its major proclamation of Muslim rule in the region is testament to the might of the Mughal Empire in India.
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