The view from Humayun's Tomb, circa 1860s.

 

Here is another photograph from amateur photographer Samuel Bourne’s set on Delhi, taken in the 1860s. This is taken from the top of Humayun’s tomb and gives us a sense of the scale of what is known today as the Humayun’s Tomb complex. In the foreground are the Afsarwala tomb and mosque, followed by Isa Khan’s tomb and its mosque in the background.

The photo contrasts slightly with the ruins of Tughlaqabad (I have posted on this earlier) but its composition is equally eerie. The lush landscape in the picture also conceals the village of Ghiyaspur containing Sheikh Nizamuddin’s dargah. 

As mentioned my previous posts, while the photograph captures a seemingly timeless landscape, it also reflects the colonial aesthetic of the picturesque, which was often entangled with political intentions. The desolation and decay represented in such images was set against the supposed progress and modernity of British colonial rule.