Shalimar Bagh Mughal Garden (Sheesh Mahal)

Tucked behind the busy DDA colonies of north-west Delhi, Shalimar Bagh is one of the capital's least-visited Mughal survivals — a green, faintly melancholy square of history that most Delhiites drive past without ever entering.

• It was laid out in 1653 by Izz-un-Nissa Begum, a senior consort of Emperor Shah Jahan (styled Akbarabadi Mahal), who named it Aizzabad Bagh and modelled it on the terraced Shalimar garden her emperor knew from Kashmir.
• The result is a classic charbagh: a four-part paradise garden once threaded with water channels, ornamental tanks and, by tradition, twenty-five fountains, its beds planted with fruit orchards and shade trees.
• The garden's single most famous moment came in 1658, when Aurangzeb — freshly victorious in the war of succession — chose the pavilion here for his first, hurried coronation before the formal enthronement at the Red Fort.
• That pavilion, the Sheesh Mahal ("palace of mirrors"), still stands: a low, dignified building of arched openings, a compartmented central hall and vaulted side rooms, with fragments of painted ceiling ornament clinging on above.
• Around it the parterre and a scatter of old trees hint at the geometry that once made this a princely retreat.
• Nadir Shah is said to have camped here in 1738, and the early British Resident used it as a summer house; the ground saw fighting during the events of 1857.
• Today the Archaeological Survey of India protects the site, though it feels more neglected than grand — grass, birdsong, joggers and the occasional history buff rather than tour buses.
• That very quiet is its appeal.
• Come for the atmosphere of a place time forgot, for the pleasure of reading Mughal garden design in its bones, and to stand in a pavilion where an empire briefly changed hands.
• Vegetarian travellers will find the garden itself has no reliable food stalls, so it is best treated as a morning stop before eating elsewhere.
• This corner of north Delhi is well served by dependable pure-vegetarian names: the Haldiram's and Bikanervala outlets around Pitampura and Netaji Subhash Place, a short auto-ride south, do excellent chaat, thalis, chole-bhature and mithai with no egg in the savoury kitchen.
• For a heavier north-Indian treat, the legendary paratha counters of Kake Di Hatti in Chandni Chowk lie about eleven kilometres away.
• Carry your own water and a few snacks if you plan a long, unhurried wander.
• Pair Shalimar Bagh with the nearby Coronation Park or the Mughal-era Roshanara Bagh to make a rewarding half-day of north Delhi's forgotten green heritage.