Red Fort

Red Fort,the Delhi Fort also known as Lal Qil'ah, or Lal Qila, meaning the Red Fort, located in Delhi,India is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Red Fort is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Delhi, attracting millions of visitors every year. The fort is also the site from which the Prime Minister of India addresses the nation on August 15 , the day India achieved independence from the British.
Since 1947, the Prime Minister, on every Independence day, addresses the nation from the Red Fort. This tradition was kept intact by the Indian Government. Red Fort is among the most highly ranked architectural works of the Mughal era.
At one point in time, more than 3000 people lived within the premises of the Delhi Fort complex. But after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the fort was captured by Britain and was made the headquarters of the British Indian Army. Immediately after the mutiny, Bahadur Shah Zafar was tried at the Red Fort. It was also here in November 1945, that the most famous courts-martial of three officers of the Indian National Army were held. After India was given independence in 1947, the Indian Army took control over the fort. In December 2003, the Indian Army handed the fort over to the Indian tourist authorities.
The fort was the site of a December 2000 attack by terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba which killed two soldiers and one civilian in what was described in the media as an attempt to derail the India-Pakistan peace process in Kashmir.
History of Red FortThe Red Fort was the palace for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's new capital, Shahjahanabad, the seventh Muslim city in the Delhi site. He moved his capital from Agra in a move designed to bring prestige to his reign, and to provide ample opportunity to apply his ambitious building schemes and interests. The Red Fort stands at the eastern edge of Shahjahanabad, and gets its name from the massive wall of red sandstone that defines its four sides. The wall is 1.5 miles (2.5 km) long, and varies in height from 60ft (16m) on the river side to 110 ft (33 m) towards the city. Measurements have shown that the plan was generated using a square grid of 82 m.
The fort lies along the Yamuna River, which fed the moats that surround most of the wall. The wall at its north-eastern corner is adjacent to an older fort, the Salimgarh Fort, a defense built by Islam Shah Suri in 1546. Construction on the Red Fort began in 1638 and was complete by 1648. However, it is believed that it is The Ancient City of Lal Kot which was captured by Shah Jahan since Lal Kot literally means Red(Lal) Fort(Kot). Lal Kot was the capital city of Prithviraj Chauhan in the late 12th century.
On 11 March 1783, Sikhs entered Red Fort in Delhi and occupied the Diwan-i-Am. The city was essentially surrendered by the Mughal wazir in cahoots with his Sikh Allies. This task was carried out under the command of the Sardar Baghel Singh Dhaliwal of the Karor Singhia misl.
(Sardar Baghel Singh Dhaliwal on the third of his 3 campaigns to conquer Delhi.)
The Red Fort was conceived as a whole, and subsequent modifications have not taken away from the overall unity of the scheme. In the 18th century, however, occupiers and looters damaged some sections of the palace. After the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, when the Fort was used as a headquarters, the British army occupied and destroyed about four-fifths of its pavilions and gardens. A program for restoring the surviving parts of the fort began in 1903.