The best haunted places in Delhi

Delhi Cantonment is one of the city's most orderly corners, with wide roads, army sentries and barely a stray cat. That's what makes the ghost stories more unsettling. The most repeated one is of a woman in a white saree who appears on the empty roads at night. Drivers swear she keeps pace with their cars before vanishing. There's no single monument to visit here: the legend belongs to the stretch of road itself, passed down by night-shift cabbies. Since this is army territory, stick to the public roads.

Opening hours: Open roads, no fixed timings
Entry: Free
Address: Delhi Cantonment, Delhi, 110010

Deep in the Ridge forest in Chanakyapuri, this is a crumbling Tughlaq-era hunting lodge, believed to have been built in the 14th century under Firoz Shah Tughlaq. For centuries it sat in ruins, until 1985, when a woman calling herself Begum Wilayat Mahal moved in. She claimed descent from the royal house of Awadh and had spent years protesting at New Delhi railway station for a home. She lived here with her two children, Sakina and Ali Raza, a pack of dogs and no electricity or running water, and she died in 1993. Her children stayed on after her death. Ali Raza died in 2017. 

The stories have only grown since: a spirit that slaps intruders, part of a family that never quite left. Even the Delhi Tourism department discontinued heritage walks here after sunset.

Opening hours: Mon-Sun. 9 am- 5.30 pm.
Entry: Free.
Address: Bistdari Road, Delhi Ridge, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, 110021

A short walk from Kashmere Gate, Lothian Cemetery is one of the oldest Christian burial grounds in Delhi. It opened in 1808, took in British soldiers and their families, and has long since stopped taking burials. Many of the dead fell in the Revolt of 1857, which makes it a cousin to the Mutiny Memorial. The graves are overgrown now, and many of the inscriptions have weathered smooth. The ghost here is a heartbroken British officer. As the story goes, he fell for an Indian woman, couldn't marry her and shot himself. Now, he’s said to walk among the graves, headless, calling out her name.

Opening hours: No fixed public timings; the site is often locked.
Address: Lothian Road, near Kashmere Gate GPO, Delhi, 110006

By day, Sanjay Van is a sprawling forest of birdwatchers, joggers and trail-walkers, spread over roughly 780 acres between Vasant Kunj and Mehrauli. Nature walks and picnics of all kinds abound here. By night, though, its reputation changes. Visitors tell of sudden pushes, slaps, vanishing trinkets and a woman in a white saree seen hanging upside down from the trees. It also holds the ruins of Qila Lal Kot, one of Delhi's oldest fortifications. Add the abandoned structures hidden in the undergrowth, like the well called Maan Singh ka Kuaan, and you can see why the stories stick.

Opening hours: Mon-Sun, 5am-8pm
Entry: Free
Address: Qutab Institutional Area, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, Delhi, 110016

Behind the high-rises near Connaught Place, Agrasen Ki Baoli is a stepwell, generally dated to the 14th century, with more than 100 stone steps descending into shadows. Its arched niches and depth have made it a favourite of photographers and film crews. It turned up in Aamir Khan's PK, among other films, and the bare, echoing passage makes it easy to see why directors keep coming back. This atmosphere has also earned it a reputation as one of Delhi's most haunted monuments. Visitors say the dry well 'pulls' at them, and that evil spirits linger below. One story tells of an old man who appears on the steps and then vanishes. The temperature drops noticeably as you descend, and the pigeons and bats in the niches add their own rustling to the quiet.

Opening hours: Mon-Sun, 9 am-5.30pm
Entry: Free
Address: Hailey Road, KG Marg, near Diwan Chand Imaging Centre, New Delhi, 110001

Khooni Darwaza, the Bloody Gate, stands on a traffic island opposite the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Sher Shah Suri built it in the 16th century as the Kabuli Darwaza, and it is best known by its grim name since 1857. That September, Major William Hodson shot two sons and a grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar near here, as the British retook Delhi. The princes had surrendered at Humayun's Tomb the day before. The gate is also linked in local memory to the violence of Partition in 1947, which only deepens its reputation. Passersby report cries, sudden chills and the feeling of being watched. You can't go inside (the gate is sealed), but you can stand beside the red sandstone and feel the weight of its history.

Opening hours: Viewable from outside; entry not permitted.
Entry: Free
Address: Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, opposite Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, 110002

The Chor Minar, or Tower of Thieves, looks harmless until you notice the 225 holes in its walls. The round tower rises roughly 22 metres, and the holes are said to have held spikes for the heads. Built under Alauddin Khalji, it is said to have displayed the heads of beheaded thieves, a warning to would-be robbers. Historians admit there's little proof, and some link it to Mongol invaders instead. Locals warn of headless ghosts. In the evenings, the tower looks almost like a lighthouse, standing guard in a residential street. It sits inside a small, fenced park where neighbourhood residents walk their dogs, which makes the story feel even stranger.

Opening hours: Open to view from outside; often locked
Entry: Free
Address: Chor Minar Road, Block L, Padmini Enclave, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110016

You'll spot the Mutiny Memorial well before you reach it. Its Victorian spire pokes out above the Ridge's treetops, and crows circle it. The British put it up in 1863 for the soldiers of the Delhi Field Force who died on the British side in 1857. In 1972, it was renamed Ajitgarh and rededicated to the Indian freedom fighters of the uprising. Gothic red sandstone, pointed arches and a church-style spire already make it look the part for a ghost story, and it has one. Locals say a headless angrez drifts along the road out front, asking strangers for a lighter. (Much of Delhi can relate.)

Opening hours: Mon-Sun, 9am-5pm
Entry: Free
Address: Kamla Nehru Ridge, Civil Lines, Delhi, 110007

Located inside the Bara Hindu Rao Hospital campus, Pir Ghaib is named for a saint who disappeared. Firoz Shah Tughlaq built it as a hunting lodge, and some historians think it doubled as an observatory, since a hollow masonry cylinder inside could have been used to track the skies. Others say it was a clock tower. Whatever its purpose, the height gave a sweeping view over the forest below. During the 1857 siege, the Ridge around it was among the most contested ground in Delhi, so the building has seen its share of soldiers as well as saints. Once the Tughlaqs faded, a pir moved into the empty building to pray, then supposedly vanished without a trace, and the name stuck. Some locals swear, stone-cold sober, that they've seen the pir riding a horse along the roads around the hospital. Since it's inside a working hospital campus, just behind the main building, ambulances and visitors can often fill up the silence.

Opening hours: Mon-Sun, 8am-5pm
Entry: Free
Address: Pir Ghaib, Hindu Rao Hospital Complex, Civil Lines, Delhi, 110007