Athpula aka Khairpur ka Pul

Photography on a cold Delhi winter day. Sounds interesting? I am sure if we hadn’t messed the previous occasion we would have happily missed today. Guilt pangs and the want to start a Sunday differently took us to Athpula.

So where is Athpula? This heritage bridge is located in Lodi Garden in Delhi.

A little about the place from the information board at the site.

This bridge was built by Nawab Bahadur, a nobleman in the court of Akbar (1556-1605). It is one of the very few surviving works built in Delhi area during Akbar’s reign. The bridge once spanned a tributary of the Yamuna, a part of the river system that once drained the South Delhi areas. The bridge has seven arches, their span decreasing from the centre to the bank of the streamlet over which it was built. The pul refers to the piers of which there are eight (‘ath’) supporting the arches of this bridge. The top of the bridge is paved with local grey stone and the parapet of the same material originally was crowned with a moulded coping which rose to about 3 feet and 8 inches above the level of the roadway. The bridge was repaired in 1913-14. This is a Protected Monument (Category ‘A’) of the Archaeological Survey of India.

What this board also says is –

	This 400 years old bridge is a part of our heritage. Please protect and preserve it. Do not feed birds here. The bird feed gets embedded in the crevices of the structure and attracts ant and other insects, which damage the monument.
	Unfortunately that is beyond the comprehension of the ‘morning walker’ and ‘bird lover’ Delhi-ite. We found many families feeding the duck and geese here.

 

Here are links to Mita’s Pictures:

http://photodiaries.tumblr.com/post/338666025/17-01-2010-woke-up-6-30-in-the-morning-after

http://metascope.tumblr.com/post/338703895/17-10-2010-lodhi-garden-loved-the-ducks-although

http://picasaweb.google.com/mita.majumdar/LodhiGardern17012010?feat=embedwebsite

 

On the way back; here are some shot at nearly 9AM

And then some at home

See some more here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/aanondo/

Till next time! Cheers!