Sultan Ghari

Built in the early thirteenth century, this is regarded as the earliest Islamic monumental tomb in the Indian subcontinent, raised for a son of Sultan Iltutmish. Its fortress-like enclosure surrounds an octagonal underground crypt, an unusual arrangement that gives the site its name, meaning ruler of the cave. Reused fragments of earlier temple columns support parts of the structure, and heavy corner bastions lend it a defensive appearance. Set amid scrub on the city's southwestern edge, it is little visited and austere.