Subterranean Wonder

A museum worthy of the World Heritage stature of Humayun's Tomb is finally open at the site

- Amit Dixit

The Humayun Tomb World Heritage Site Museum-to give it its proper name-has been in the making for nearly a decade, but restoration and urban renewal initiatives in the 300-acre Nizamuddin Conservation Area, of which Humayun's Tomb is a part, have been ongoing for 25 years. The museum is the crowning glory of that grand project, which has given usapart from a resplendent Humayun's Tomb-Sunder Nursery and its historical monuments, a restored Sabz Burj-which historian Ebba Koch has surmised is the tomb of Humayun's mother, Maham Begum-and community affirming projects in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti.

The creation of the site museum-set in the entrance zone of the Humayun's Tomb Complex and the Sunder Nursery heritage park-was spearheaded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), all under the watchful eye of conservation architect Ratish Nanda, who heads AKTC in India. Designed by Vir.Mueller Architects, the museum complex spans an area of 10,000 square metres, and is mostly underground to comply with the 1.2m height restriction around protected monuments, leaving the vista of the tomb unsullied.

Clad in red sandstone, the facilities building is above ground, on the Sunder Nursery side. It already houses a 100-seater auditorium in its basement and will have restaurants and souvenir shops by the end of the year. The museum also provides underground passage between Humayun's Tomb and Sunder Nursery, otherwise separated by a road. The goal of the state-of-the-art facility is "to inform visitors of the cultural context and the extent of the UNESCO World Heritage Site". "This is a museum that tells stories," says Nanda.