FACTS & FIGURES
Built In AD 1295
Built By Ala-ud-din Khilji
Location Delhi

LIFELINE OF SIRI FORT
The Hauz-I-Alai or the Hauz Khas pond is an important water work that was excavated by Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji.

It was built by Ala-ud-din to overcome the problem of water shortage faced by the people of his capital city of Siri.

Although the pond went into disuse after the end of the Khilji dynasty, it again gained importance under Ferozshah Tughlaq. Ferozshah excavated the pond again and built a number of buildings near it, beautifying the entire area around this pond.

UTILITARIAN AND INDO-ISLAMIC STYLE
The Hauz-I-Alai is a piece of utilitarian architecture, which was built to collect and store rainwater for daily usage.

The buildings around the pond, which were built by Ferozshah Tughlaq, belong to the Indo-Islamic style of architecture.

HAUZ-I-ALAI
Sultan Ala-ud-din-Khilji (AD 1296-1316) belonged to the Khilji dynasty (AD 1290-1320), which ruled the Delhi Sultanate (AD 1191-1526). Ala-ud-din Khilji wan not only a strong monarch but also a great patron of architecture. He ascended the throne of the Delhi Sultanate in AD 1296 and started building the fort city of Siri.

Siri served as the capital of Ala-ud-din Khilji and was the first city in Delhi to be built by the Muslim rulers of India.

Ala-ud-din also began to put into shape his grand plans of beautifying the existing Qutab Minar complex.

He added the Alai Darwaza, a magnificent gateway with inlaid marble decorations and latticed stone screens that displayed the remarkable artistry of the Turkish artisans who worked on it.

He also planned to build the Alai Minar, which was conceived to be taller than the Qutab Minar; however, the construction of this tower was abandoned after the completion of the 24.5-m-high first story.

The reign of Ala-ud-din was marked by constant threats from the Mongols, who descended on the northern part of India in waves. In 1303, the Mongols under plundered Delhi and almost captured it. Meanwhile, Ala-ud-din Khilji was away from Delhi, busy with one of his military campaigns. Returning to Delhi from his Deccan campaign, Ala-ud-din Khilji decided to build a defensive fortress at Siri with strong fortified ramparts and impregnable bastions.

It was Delhi's third fort. The construction of Siri Fort and the city within it began in AD 1304. The place he chose was a plain ground three miles to the northeast of Qutab Minar where forces attacking or defending Delhi used to camp. The fort of Siri was never attacked, but it was laid to waste by later rulers of Delhi who carted off whatever building material they could use for building their own forts.

The only major surviving building of Siri is at Hauz Khas (a location in south Delhi) where Ala-ud-din built a vast 50-hectare reservoir called Hauz-I-Alai for the benefit of the people of Siri. It was a fateful moment when the king chose this site to build a tank that was so large that historian Sharfuddin Yazdi is supposed to have said that an arrow shot from one end would not reach the other.

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