The Humayun tomb was commissioned by Humayun’s first wife Bega Begum (Hajji Begum) in 1569-70, and designed by Mirak Mirza Ghiyath, a Persian architect. It was the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent, and is located in East Nizamudin, Delhi. Besides the main tomb enclosure of Humayun, several other smaller monuments dot the pathway leading up to it, from the main entrance in the West. The tomb complex of Isa Khan Niyazi, an Afghan noble in Sher Shah Suri’s court of Suri dynasty, who fought against the Mughals, constructed in 1547 CE. After his death on 20 January 1556, Humayun’s body was first buried in his palace in the Purana Quila at Delhi. Thereafter it was taken to Sirhind, in Punjab by Khanjar Beg, because it was feared that the Hindu king Hemu, who had defeated Mughal forces in Agra and Delhi in Oct. 1556 and captured Purana Quila, will damage the tomb. In 1558, Akbar subsequently visited the tomb when it was about to be completed in 1571. The tomb of Humayun was built by the orders of Bega Begum, Humayun’s first wife and chief consort, and begun in 1565, nine years after his death, and completed in 1572 AD at a cost of 1.5 million rupees at the time. According to Ain-i-Akbari, Haji Begum supervised the construction of the tomb after returning from Mecca.
Humayun Tomb
