Gauri Shankar Temple

Standing in the old quarter of Chandni Chowk, the Gauri Shankar Temple is a Shiva shrine famous for an 800-year-old lingam encased in silver-and-gold serpent imagery. It was largely built in the eighteenth century by a Maratha soldier who, tradition says, vowed its construction after surviving a battle wound. Its white marble halls and mirrored interior contrast with the crowded bazaar outside, and during Maha Shivratri long queues of devotees form. Beside a Jain temple and a gurdwara, it reflects the layered religious fabric of old Delhi.