Jahanpanah

Jahanpanah was the fourth medieval city of Delhi established in 1326–1327 by Delhi Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq. To counter the persistent threat of Mongol invasions, Tughlaq constructed the fortified city of Jahanpanah (meaning "Refuge of the World" in Persian), incorporating the Adilabad Fort, built in the 14th century, along with all the establishments located between Qila Rai Pithora and Siri Fort. Neither the city nor the fort has survived. Many reasons have been offered for such a situation. One of these is exemplified by the idiosyncratic rule of Mohammed bin Tughlaq, who inexplicably decreed the capital to be moved to Daulatabad in the Deccan, only to return to Delhi soon after.

The ruins of the city's walls are even now discerned in the road between Siri to Qutub Minar, and also in isolated patches behind the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), in Begumpur, Khirki Masjid, Satpula and many other nearby locations; at some sections, as seen at Satpula, the fort walls were large enough to have few inbuilt storerooms to stack provisions and armoury. The mystery of the city's precincts (complex) has unfolded over the years with later day excavations revealing a large number of monuments in the villages and residential colonies of South Delhi.

Due to the constraints triggered by the unfettered urban expansion of Delhi, Jahanpanah is now engulfed by the upscale urban developments of South Delhi. The village and the wealth of ruins scattered all around are now enclosed by the South Delhi suburbs of Panchsheel Park, Malviya Nagar, Adchini, and the Aurobindo Ashram. It is hemmed in the north–south direction between the Outer Ring Road and the Qutb Complex, and on the east–west direction by the Mehrauli road and the Chirag Delhi road, with Indian Institute of Technology, located on the other side of the Mehrauli road as an important landmark.