Photos: Delhi’s haunted forts and ghost stories make for spooky city tours

With tours that go by names like An evening with Djinns of Delhi, Ghostly Nights and Shadows Walk or Delhi Haunted Ghost Walk, tour operators and guides across the city are offering a feel of ‘ghost-ridden’ forts and tombs, darkened graveyards, ‘possessed’ roads, creepy trees and the ‘haunted’ houses of Delhi. Tales of the paranormal and often downright scary stories associated with many of the city’s monuments and locations make Delhi a contender for a top ghost tourism destination.

Updated on: May 21, 2018 10:57 AM IST

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A view of the Feroz Shah Kotla fort in New Delhi. The city’s “ghost ridden” forts and tombs, darkened graveyards, “possessed” roads, creepy trees and “haunted” houses and the equally rich stories around them have been drawing tourists of a different sort –those interested in the paranormal and looking for a spook. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Many monuments have multiple ghostly stories attached to them, like the Khooni Darwaza (pictured) which claims five. Feeding this curiosity for the darker side to the city’s monuments, of which the medieval and ancient settlements in modern Delhi have left a fair number, are various tour companies providing ghost tours by day and night. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Bhuli Bhatiyari Ka Mahal in New Delhi. While some are drawn by the possibility of a paranormal experience, perhaps a djinn or ghost sighting, others come looking for the truth behind the stories. Popular destinations include Feroz Shah Kotla fort, Jamali Kamali in Mehrauli, Khooni Darwaza, Khilji’s tomb and Khooni Nadi. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Paranormal tours also celebrate Delhi’s multilayered history, if only through the shadowy recesses at Feroz Shah Kotla that are said to harbour djinns and spirits, or midnight walks through the mausoleums of the 16th century Sufi saints Jamali and Kamali where tales abound of an invisible gaze deftly following visitors and voices that call out from the mazaar. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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A view of the Khooni Darwaza’s facade. Even the Delhi government’s tourism department is promoting haunted tours. Whether the stories attached to the monuments are fact or fiction is up for question, but the “haunted” tag certainly draws curious visitors. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Haunted tours are a fun way to engage visitors who might not visit otherwise. With the Khooni Jheel at the Northern Ridge, claimed haunted by the ghosts of fleeing British soldiers killed in 1857, or the pockmarked Chor Minar in Hauz Khas, whose 225 holes once displayed the severed heads of thieves, Delhi has a fair bit to explore for those not of faint heart. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)