Lynette Keating, age 16, of Lynn, Mass., for her question:
IS DELHI, INDIA, AN OLD CITY?
In 100 B.C. a city was built on the location where present day Delhi now stands in northern India. Then for hundreds of years, many other cities rose and fell in the ruins of this site. The ruins cover an area of about 45 square miles around the city.
The present city of Delhi was started by a Mogul emperor named Shah Jahan in 1639. Some of the earlier cities were built by Muslim emperors. A wall still stands around the temples and palaces that were built for Shah Jahan.
Delhi continued to be a Mogul capital until it was conquered and looted in 1739 by a Persian ruler named Nadir Shah. About 1771 the Marathas took over and held the city until British forces captured Dehli in 1803.
Delhi served as the temporary capital of British India between the years 1912 and 1931. Then New Delhi was officially named as the nation's capital.
The population of the city today is about 6 million.
Dehli, or Old Delhi, is on the Jumna River which is a tributary of the Ganges. To the south is New Delhi.
Surrounding the city is a high stone wall and it holds seven arched gates. Of special charm are the Delhi Gate in the south, the Ajmer Gate in the east and the northern Kashmir Gate.
The old city is made up of a mass of narrow, crowded streets and alleys. Experts agree that there is also a fine display of some outstanding Indo Muslim architectural treasures. The main thoroughfare is called Silver Street, or Chandni Chauk. At one time it was called the most lavish street in the world.
Many poor people live in Delhi today. Some of the houses have only one room and no windows and hold as many as 20 persons.
Some of the streets of Delhi are so narrow that you can almost touch the buildings on each side of the street at the same time.
The poor people who live crowded into old buildings work in Delhi's factories and cloth mills.
The city is a manufacturing and trade center for India. There are flour mills as well as small shops where handmade jewelry and art objects of gold and silver are made.
Among the old yet beautiful buildings is the Pearl Mosque that is made of white and gray marble and covered with delicate carvings. Outstanding also is the Halls of Public and Private Audience, also made of marble, where the emperor greeted his guests in all of the glitter of an Eastern court.
There's also the Great Mosque that was built between 1644 and 1658 by the order of Shah Jahan. It is built of white marble and red sandstone. It has three white marble domes rising above the building.