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The Bara Gumbad, or “big dome,” is a large domed structure grouped together with the Friday mosque of Sikander Lodi and a mehman khana (guesthouse), located in New Delhi’s Lodi Gardens. The buildings were constructed at different times during the Lodi era and occupy a common raised platform. Formerly an outlying area of Delhi, the Lodi Gardens are a British-planned landscaped garden which includes a number of monuments (primarily tombs) from the Sayyid and the Lodi dynasties. Originally called Willingdon Park, the gardens were located in the former village of Khairpur, now on the edge of Lutyen’s Delhi, the colonial capital built by the British in the early 20th century. The gardens, which cover approx. 70 acres, have come to be surrounded by institutional buildings and some of contemporary Delhi’s most expensive real estate.

Although they were built under the same dynasty, each of the three structures was undertaken separately. The Bara Gumbad, completed in 1490, is considered to have the first full dome constructed in Delhi. Its original purpose is contested; although it appears to be a freestanding tomb, it contains no tombstone. This causes the speculation that the building might have been intended as a gateway for the Friday mosque; however, their respective placements, stylistic differences, and construction dates do not support this theory. The Friday mosque, completed in 1494, is the first example of the new mosque type that developed during the Lodi era. Characterized by a relatively simple five bay prayer hall building adjacent to a simple open courtyard, this type was an important precedent for mosque architecture in the Lodi and Mughal eras.

The complex can be accessed from various points along the roads bordering the Lodi Gardens, with the access from the Lodi road towards the south most prominent. The buildings are situated at a distance of about 300 meters from Muhammad Shah’s tomb towards the south and about 380 meters from Sikander Lodi’s tomb towards the north. Another prominent structure, the Shish Gumbad, is located facing the Bara Gumbad at a distance of about seventy-five meters towards the north. The area surrounding the buildings is landscaped with manicured grass lawns. Few trees are planted in the immediate vicinity, leaving the view of the structures unobscured. The path winding through the Lodi Gardens approaches the buildings axially from the north, although the building plinth is accessible all from all sides.

The buildings are sited on a three-meter-high platform, measuring approximately 30 meters (east-west) by 25 meters (north-south). The Friday mosque is located along the western edge of the platform; the guesthouse is sited opposite it, occupying the eastern edge, while the Bara Gumbad is located along the southern edge. Stone masonry walls, about six meters high, connect the three structures along the southern edge. The northern edge is provided with staircases for accessing the platform. A centrally located straight flight comprising of eight steps, about ten meters wide, connects the ground to a generous mid landing. Another ‘C’ shaped flight of eight steps wraps around the landing, creating an amphitheatre-like space and reaching the top of the platform. The current arrangement of steps appears to be more recent, and the remains of walls adjoining the southern face of the guesthouse and the mosque indicate that the northern edge might have originally been walled. In the center of the raised court, with its southern edge along the staircase, are the remains of a square shaped platform, 8 meters wide, which appears to be a grave.

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