India, Nov. 7 -- There is Old Delhi. There is also older Delhi. A lot many monuments of Mehrauli were already centuries-old by the time Shahjahan laid the foundation of Old Delhi some 400 years ago. In an attempt to exhaustively dig into the innards of historic Mehrauli, we start with a handful of monuments. They are not as world-famous as Mehrauli's most touristy monument (guess which!), but are perhaps more deeply entrenched into the region's social and cultural landscape.

Jahaz Mahal is said to look like a jahaz, a ship. Legend has it that its reflection on the rippling wavelets of an adjacent lake were said to resemble a ship on sail. The name, ship palace, emerged from that perception. The stone monument's beauty is felt intensely d...