Delhi is India’s capital territory, a sprawling metropolis in the country’s north that functions as the seat of the national government while also ranking among the most populous urban areas in the world. It sits on the Yamuna River on the Indo-Gangetic Plain, bordered by the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and is officially known as the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Where Is Delhi Located?

Delhi lies in northern India, roughly 1,500 kilometers from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal alike, on the west bank of the Yamuna River. The National Capital Territory covers about 1,484 square kilometers and is landlocked by Haryana to the west, north, and south, and Uttar Pradesh across the Yamuna to the east. Within it sits New Delhi, the smaller administrative district built by the British in the twentieth century that houses Parliament and the main organs of the Indian government.

A Brief History of Delhi

Delhi’s layered history spans more than a dozen cities built and rebuilt on roughly the same ground over the centuries, each ruling dynasty leaving its own capital in a slightly different location.

Mughal Delhi and the Founding of Shahjahanabad

The city’s most famous surviving core dates to the Mughal Empire. Emperor Shah Jahan, who ruled from 1628 to 1658 and later commissioned the Taj Mahal in Agra, built a new walled capital called Shahjahanabad on the Yamuna’s bank. Its centerpiece was the Red Fort, a palace fort whose planning and architecture blended Islamic, Persian, Timurid, and Hindu traditions, according to UNESCO, which inscribed the Red Fort Complex on the World Heritage List in 2007.^[1] The fort’s design and garden layout went on to influence later buildings across Rajasthan, Delhi, and Agra.^[1] An adjacent fortification, Salimgarh Fort, had already been built in 1546 by the ruler Islam Shah Suri and was later absorbed into the same walled complex.^[1]

Colonial Delhi and the New Capital

British colonial authorities used the Red Fort as a military garrison after taking control of the city, a use that is itself part of the site’s recognized heritage value.^[1] In 1911, the colonial government announced that the capital of British India would move from Calcutta to Delhi, and over the following two decades it built New Delhi, a planned administrative city with wide avenues and government buildings, immediately south of the old Mughal city.

Delhi Since Independence

After India’s independence in 1947, Delhi remained the national capital and in 1956 became a Union Territory, with the Red Fort formally declared a monument of national importance in 1959.^[1] Delhi occupies an unusual constitutional position among Indian territories: it is a Union Territory with its own elected legislative assembly and chief minister, a structure of partial statehood that has at times produced disputes between the Delhi government and India’s central government over who controls which administrative matters. The Red Fort itself carries a specific civic significance beyond its architecture, having been the site of the first flag-raising ceremony marking Indian independence, a tradition the country’s prime minister continues there each year.^[1]

Government and Administration

As the national capital, Delhi hosts the Parliament of India, the Rashtrapati Bhavan (the presidential residence), and the Supreme Court, alongside the headquarters of nearly every national ministry and foreign embassy. It is governed jointly by an elected Delhi government responsible for many municipal and local matters and the central government of India, which retains authority over land, police, and public order within the territory.

Culture and People

Delhi’s population reflects waves of migration from across the Indian subcontinent, making it one of the country’s most linguistically and religiously mixed cities, with Hindi as the dominant language alongside Punjabi, Urdu, English, and many others spoken widely. Old Delhi, the area within and around the former Shahjahanabad walls, retains a dense network of markets, mosques, and food traditions dating to the Mughal period, while New Delhi and the city’s southern districts carry the bungalow-lined, administrative character of the early twentieth century. The city’s cuisine, performing arts scene, and university system, including Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, give it a cultural weight distinct from its political role.

What Is Delhi Known For?

Delhi is known first as the seat of India’s national government and second as a repository of Mughal and colonial architecture concentrated in a single city. The Red Fort anchors that reputation: a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose planning influenced Mughal architecture across northern India.^[1] Other major landmarks include the Qutub Minar, a twelfth-century minaret, and India Gate, a war memorial from the colonial era, both of which sit within the same dense historical landscape as the Red Fort and Shahjahanabad.

Why Delhi Matters

Delhi matters as the administrative and political center of a country of more than a billion people, and as a physical record of nearly a thousand years of successive empires choosing the same strategic point on the Yamuna for their capitals. Few cities anywhere preserve that continuity as visibly: a Mughal walled city, a colonial administrative capital, and a modern seat of parliamentary government, standing within a few kilometers of one another and still in active use.

Key Takeaways

• Delhi is the National Capital Territory of India, seat of the national government, on the Yamuna River in northern India.
• The Red Fort, built by Shah Jahan as the centerpiece of his capital Shahjahanabad, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.
• The British moved the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911 and built New Delhi as a planned administrative city.
• Delhi has held Union Territory status with its own elected legislature since 1956, a partial-statehood arrangement that has produced disputes over administrative control.
• The Red Fort has hosted the Indian prime minister’s independence day address since 1947.

Sources

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Red Fort Complex,” Undated, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/231, accessed 2026-10-20.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed October 20, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue