A Virtual Walkthrough of the 16th Century Grand Trunk Road
Developed with Support from the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation
Developed with Support from the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation
Description
This stepwell (baoli) stands on the old Grand Trunk Road in the village of Sarai Amanat Khan in Tarn Taran district of Punjab. The village takes its name from the caravansarai commissioned by Amanat Khan Shirazi, the distinguished calligrapher of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s court. Amanat Khan is best known for designing and executing the inscriptions of the Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra. His tomb lies near the waystation he patronised, highlighting his close association with the site. The stepwell lies about 200 metres west of the Sarai. At its southern end, you’ll see a restored but dry circular well; toward the north, the structure rises into a graceful two-storied gateway that once held three interconnected rooms overlooking the steps below. As you move through the space, imagine travellers descending the shaded stairway to collect water, bathe, or rest after long days on the road. Stepwells like this were essential features on Mughal highways. Designed for Punjab’s intense summers, they combined deep wells with stepped access to ensure dependable, year-round water for people and animals staying at the Sarai. Though time has taken its toll—a modern pillar supports part of the weakened structure—the stepwell remains a powerful reminder of how engineering, art, and travel once converged on this historic route.
Explore
As you step beyond the walls of Dakhni Sarai, a way station, the landscape begins to offer gentle reminders of a time when this quiet field was part of a thriving highway. A tall kos minar rises like an ancient mile marker, once guiding travellers along the Grand Trunk Road. A small domed room that once may have sheltered guards near the weathered remains of an old bridge, half-sunken yet still dignified, a vital link that once carried caravans straight to the Sarai’s eastern gateway. In its prime, this bridge was a graceful engineering feat of the Mughal world. Built of slim lakhori bricks set in lime mortar and probably commissioned during Shah Jahan’s reign (1628-1658 CE), it originally had five arches, the central one rising highest. It spanned the Dhauli–Veni River, allowing merchants, messengers, soldiers, and pilgrims to cross safely in every season. The bridge and the Sarai worked together as a single node of movement, one offering passage, the other shelter. But rivers reshape their paths, and with time the Dhauli–Veni shifted closer to the Sarai, leaving the old bridge stranded on dry ground. History, too, left its mark: in the early 1800s, one of its spans was blown up by Baba Sahib Bedi to slow the advance of Diwan Mohkam Chand, a general of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Today, several arches have sunk, and the bridge no longer connects to any road.
Explore
As you enter Sarai Doraha in Ludhiana, you step into a vast 17th-century Mughal caravanserai—once a bustling refuge along the old Grand Trunk Road. In its heyday, this fortified inn offered everything a long-distance traveller might need: safe lodging, a mosque for prayer, water facilities, stables for animals, and even a hammam for bathing, allowing visitors to rest securely within its walls before continuing their journey. Built between 1606 and 1611 during Emperor Jahangir’s early reign, the Sarai was patronised by Itimad-ud-Daula, Empress Nur Jahan’s father, and became known by his name. Its square enclosure, constructed of lakhori bricks, red sandstone, and lime mortar, is anchored by octagonal corner bastions and dominated by two grand gateways aligned north–south. The northern gateway still carries faint traces of glazed tile work, hinting at the colour and elegance the Sarai once displayed. Inside the courtyard, rows of cells stretch along all four sides—the original resting rooms for travellers. On the west, the mosque remains active even today. In the northeast corner, you can explore the hammam, arranged as a sequence of specialised chambers that once offered steam baths, dressing areas, and latrines. Early wall paintings survive within the hammam and the southern gateway, adding delicate layers of history. After Partition, refugee families made temporary homes here, but the site was cleared in the 1970s and is now protected by the Punjab Government. Though the western side is under repair, Sarai Doraha continues to stand as a powerful reminder of Mughal travel networks. Just outside, on the southern edge, lies the baoli, or stepwell—a lifeline for travellers and their animals. Its deep well and descending steps ensured a reliable water supply through scorching summers, making it an essential companion to the Sarai on this historic route.
Explore
If you travel south of Mahlian Kalan village in Punjab, the landscape suddenly reveals a quiet giant from the Mughal past: Sarai Dakhni, one of the best-preserved caravansarais on the old Grand Trunk Road. Today it sits alone among fields, but centuries ago this was a lively and essential stop for travellers, traders, soldiers, and wandering pilgrims. Caravansarais were the Mughal Empire’s version of modern highway rest stops, except far grander. They were built as safe, self-contained inns along major routes, offering everything a weary traveller might need. Inside their fortified walls were rows of rooms, a mosque for prayer, and occasionally a hammam for bathing. Guests could sleep, cook, pray, wash, and set off again without ever stepping outside the protective enclosure. Sarai Dakhni was built in the mid-1600s, during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan, by Muqarrab Khan Deccani (also known as Rustam Khan Bahadur Firuz Jung). Designed as a perfect square, it had two massive gateways on the east and west that made the whole complex feel almost like a fort. At each corner stood octagonal bastions topped with small domed pavilions—watchful sentinels that once guarded the courtyard within. The gateways were once bright with glazed tiles, bits of which still cling to the walls, hinting at the colours the Sarai once wore. Inside, long rows of small rooms line the courtyard, exactly where travellers once tethered their animals and unpacked their bundles. On the southern side stands the mosque, still adorned with graceful floral wall paintings that have survived the centuries. A hammam may once have existed here too, though no trace remains. By the early 1800s, the Sarai found an unexpected new purpose when it was turned into a leper asylum. In 1919, it came under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, ensuring its preservation. Today, Sarai Dakhni stands quiet and solitary. Yet its walls still echo the footsteps of caravans, the calls of merchants, and the hum of life that once flowed along the Grand Trunk Road—a reminder of an era when travel was slow, dangerous, and utterly dependent on places like this.
Explore
Inside the neighbourhood of Amardas Colony in Nakodar, a small town in the Jalandhar district of Punjab, is nestled Hadironwala Bagh, a quiet garden complex that holds two remarkable tombs, popularly known as the resting place of a teacher and his student. The first is the Tomb of the Ustad, said to belong to the celebrated musician Muhammad Mumin Hussaini. Built around 1612–13 CE, when Emperor Jahangir ruled the Mughal empire in India, the structure rises on an octagonal platform reached by stairs on two sides. Beneath it lies a hidden crypt. Above ground, the tomb opens out with deep, arched recesses, delicate trellis-covered doorways, and traces of painted walls, calligraphy, and shining glazed tiles that hint at its former splendour. A short walk away stands the Tomb of the Shagird—literally, the student. This one is associated with Haji Jamal, a disciple of Hussaini, and was built several decades later in 1656–57 CE. His resting place sits on a square base with small octagonal towers at each corner. The exterior once shimmered with colourful tile mosaics, while inside, the chamber takes an octagonal form, lined with niches and recesses. Six sarcophagi lie within, along with Quranic inscriptions that mark the sacred space. Centuries ago, both tombs were set inside a lush charbagh, the formal four-part garden that Mughal builders used to evoke paradise on earth. Water channels and pathways would once have flowed and intertwined between the monuments, much like at Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi or the Taj Mahal in Agra. The garden no longer survives, but clues to the area’s past remain. Nearby stands a kos minar, the distance marker pillar that once marked distances for travellers on major Mughal routes, and the worn remains of a caravanserai, a waystation where merchants and travellers once rested. Together, these monuments reveal that Nakodar was not just another town. It was an important halt along the legendary Grand Trunk Road, a place where music, devotion, architecture, and travel converged in the Mughal age.
Explore
This stepwell (baoli) stands on the old Grand Trunk Road in the village of Sarai Amanat Khan in Tarn Taran district of Punjab. The village takes its name from the caravansarai commissioned by Amanat Khan Shirazi, the distinguished calligrapher of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s court. Amanat Khan is best known for designing and executing the inscriptions of the Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra. His tomb lies near the waystation he patronised, highlighting his close association with the site. The stepwell lies about 200 metres west of the Sarai. At its southern end, you’ll see a restored but dry circular well; toward the north, the structure rises into a graceful two-storied gateway that once held three interconnected rooms overlooking the steps below. As you move through the space, imagine travellers descending the shaded stairway to collect water, bathe, or rest after long days on the road. Stepwells like this were essential features on Mughal highways. Designed for Punjab’s intense summers, they combined deep wells with stepped access to ensure dependable, year-round water for people and animals staying at the Sarai. Though time has taken its toll—a modern pillar supports part of the weakened structure—the stepwell remains a powerful reminder of how engineering, art, and travel once converged on this historic route.
Explore
As you step beyond the walls of Dakhni Sarai, a way station, the landscape begins to offer gentle reminders of a time when this quiet field was part of a thriving highway. A tall kos minar rises like an ancient mile marker, once guiding travellers along the Grand Trunk Road. A small domed room that once may have sheltered guards near the weathered remains of an old bridge, half-sunken yet still dignified, a vital link that once carried caravans straight to the Sarai’s eastern gateway. In its prime, this bridge was a graceful engineering feat of the Mughal world. Built of slim lakhori bricks set in lime mortar and probably commissioned during Shah Jahan’s reign (1628-1658 CE), it originally had five arches, the central one rising highest. It spanned the Dhauli–Veni River, allowing merchants, messengers, soldiers, and pilgrims to cross safely in every season. The bridge and the Sarai worked together as a single node of movement, one offering passage, the other shelter. But rivers reshape their paths, and with time the Dhauli–Veni shifted closer to the Sarai, leaving the old bridge stranded on dry ground. History, too, left its mark: in the early 1800s, one of its spans was blown up by Baba Sahib Bedi to slow the advance of Diwan Mohkam Chand, a general of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Today, several arches have sunk, and the bridge no longer connects to any road. Yet, as you explore this VR landscape, these fragments come alive again, silent witnesses to centuries of travel, strategy, and change, now preserved under the Archaeological Survey of India.
Explore
As you enter Sarai Doraha in Ludhiana, you step into a vast 17th-century Mughal caravanserai—once a bustling refuge along the old Grand Trunk Road. In its heyday, this fortified inn offered everything a long-distance traveller might need: safe lodging, a mosque for prayer, water facilities, stables for animals, and even a hammam for bathing, allowing visitors to rest securely within its walls before continuing their journey. Built between 1606 and 1611 during Emperor Jahangir’s early reign, the Sarai was patronised by Itimad-ud-Daula, Empress Nur Jahan’s father, and became known by his name. Its square enclosure, constructed of lakhori bricks, red sandstone, and lime mortar, is anchored by octagonal corner bastions and dominated by two grand gateways aligned north–south. The northern gateway still carries faint traces of glazed tile work, hinting at the colour and elegance the Sarai once displayed. Inside the courtyard, rows of cells stretch along all four sides—the original resting rooms for travellers. On the west, the mosque remains active even today. In the northeast corner, you can explore the hammam, arranged as a sequence of specialised chambers that once offered steam baths, dressing areas, and latrines. Early wall paintings survive within the hammam and the southern gateway, adding delicate layers of history. After Partition, refugee families made temporary homes here, but the site was cleared in the 1970s and is now protected by the Punjab Government. Though the western side is under repair, Sarai Doraha continues to stand as a powerful reminder of Mughal travel networks. Just outside, on the southern edge, lies the baoli, or stepwell—a lifeline for travellers and their animals. Its deep well and descending steps ensured a reliable water supply through scorching summers, making it an essential companion to the Sarai on this historic route.
Explore
If you travel south of Mahlian Kalan village in Punjab, the landscape suddenly reveals a quiet giant from the Mughal past: Sarai Dakhni, one of the best-preserved caravansarais on the old Grand Trunk Road. Today it sits alone among fields, but centuries ago this was a lively and essential stop for travellers, traders, soldiers, and wandering pilgrims. Caravansarais were the Mughal Empire’s version of modern highway rest stops, except far grander. They were built as safe, self-contained inns along major routes, offering everything a weary traveller might need. Inside their fortified walls were rows of rooms, a mosque for prayer, and occasionally a hammam for bathing. Guests could sleep, cook, pray, wash, and set off again without ever stepping outside the protective enclosure. Sarai Dakhni was built in the mid-1600s, during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan, by Muqarrab Khan Deccani (also known as Rustam Khan Bahadur Firuz Jung). Designed as a perfect square, it had two massive gateways on the east and west that made the whole complex feel almost like a fort. At each corner stood octagonal bastions topped with small domed pavilions—watchful sentinels that once guarded the courtyard within. The gateways were once bright with glazed tiles, bits of which still cling to the walls, hinting at the colours the Sarai once wore. Inside, long rows of small rooms line the courtyard, exactly where travellers once tethered their animals and unpacked their bundles. On the southern side stands the mosque, still adorned with graceful floral wall paintings that have survived the centuries. A hammam may once have existed here too, though no trace remains. By the early 1800s, the Sarai found an unexpected new purpose when it was turned into a leper asylum. In 1919, it came under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, ensuring its preservation. Today, Sarai Dakhni stands quiet and solitary. Yet its walls still echo the footsteps of caravans, the calls of merchants, and the hum of life that once flowed along the Grand Trunk Road—a reminder of an era when travel was slow, dangerous, and utterly dependent on places like this.
Explore
Inside the neighbourhood of Amardas Colony in Nakodar, a small town in the Jalandhar district of Punjab, is nestled Hadironwala Bagh, a quiet garden complex that holds two remarkable tombs, popularly known as the resting place of a teacher and his student. The first is the Tomb of the Ustad, said to belong to the celebrated musician Muhammad Mumin Hussaini. Built around 1612–13 CE, when Emperor Jahangir ruled the Mughal empire in India, the structure rises on an octagonal platform reached by stairs on two sides. Beneath it lies a hidden crypt. Above ground, the tomb opens out with deep, arched recesses, delicate trellis-covered doorways, and traces of painted walls, calligraphy, and shining glazed tiles that hint at its former splendour. A short walk away stands the Tomb of the Shagird—literally, the student. This one is associated with Haji Jamal, a disciple of Hussaini, and was built several decades later in 1656–57 CE. His resting place sits on a square base with small octagonal towers at each corner. The exterior once shimmered with colourful tile mosaics, while inside, the chamber takes an octagonal form, lined with niches and recesses. Six sarcophagi lie within, along with Quranic inscriptions that mark the sacred space. Centuries ago, both tombs were set inside a lush charbagh, the formal four-part garden that Mughal builders used to evoke paradise on earth. Water channels and pathways would once have flowed and intertwined between the monuments, much like at Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi or the Taj Mahal in Agra. The garden no longer survives, but clues to the area’s past remain. Nearby stands a kos minar, the distance marker pillar that once marked distances for travellers on major Mughal routes, and the worn remains of a caravanserai, a waystation where merchants and travellers once rested. Together, these monuments reveal that Nakodar was not just another town. It was an important halt along the legendary Grand Trunk Road, a place where music, devotion, architecture, and travel converged in the Mughal age.
ExploreSupported through the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, this virtual walkthrough offers an immersive journey into the architectural heritage of 16th and 17th-century India along one of the world’s oldest trade routes, the Grand Trunk Road (GT Road). Through a combination of 2D and 3D explorations developed by the American Institute of Indian Studies teams, visitors can engage with a remarkable range of monuments that once served as vital nodes of travel and exchange on this imperial highway between Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Amritsar in the Indian Punjab.
Spanning centuries, the Grand Trunk Road, one of the world's oldest trade routes that runs from Agra to Amritsar in India, has facilitated the movement of trade, business, and commerce for over five centuries. Through the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, its legacy is now being carefully documented for future generations. In a proud partnership with the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), New Delhi, AFCP supported an initiative from 2023 to 2025 to document the 16 th - and 17th-century heritage along the Grand Trunk Road — India’s historic, economic, and cultural lifeline.
This virtual walkthrough offers an immersive journey into the architectural heritage of the 16th and 17th centuries along the historic Grand Trunk Road (GT Road), spanning the stretch between Agra and Amritsar across the modern Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. Through a combination of 2D and 3D explorations developed by the AIIS teams, visitors can engage with a remarkable range of monuments that once served as vital nodes of travel and exchange on this imperial highway. The tour features fortified way stations (caravan sarais), distance markers (kos minars), step wells, bridges, and gardens—structures designed to support and facilitate the movement of caravans carrying merchants, pilgrims, and royal entourages. Together, these monuments illuminate the functional and aesthetic dimensions of a road that was not only a conduit of commerce and power but also a cultural artery linking regions and communities.