Red Fort becomes the World Heritage site

New Delhi: The historic 17th century Red Fort was declared a World Heritage Site today by Unesco - the third in the capital after Qutub Minar and Humayun Tomb. "The Red Fort is considered to represent the zenith of Mughal creativity, which, under the Emperor Shah Jahan was brought to a new level of refinement," a Unesco statement said. The World Heritage Committee added four cultural sites to the Unesco list today. The other three are the Sydney Opera House (Australia), the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape (Japan) and the Parthian Fortresses of Nisa (Turkmenistan). The World Heritage List has over 830 sites, of which 27 are in India. "The Red Fort's innovative planning and architectural style, including its garden design, strongly influenced later buildings and gardens in Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra and further afield," Unesco said. "Through its fabric, the complex reflects all phases of Indian history from the Mughal period to independence." The Red Fort complex was built as the palace cum fort of Shahjahanabad - the new capital of the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. It gets its name from its massive enclosing walls of red sandstone. The private apartments have a row of pavilions connected by a continuous water channel, known as the Nahr-i-Behisht, or the Stream of Paradise. The palace was designed as an imitation of paradise as described in the Koran. A couplet inscribed in a palace wall reads, "If there be a paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here". The planning of the palace is based on Islamic prototypes, but each pavilion reveals architectural elements typical of Mughal buildings, reflecting a fusion of Persian, Timurid and Hindu traditions, Unesco underlined. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which is in charge of the preservation and maintenance of the monument, said the listing of the Red Fort was a welcome move and would help the cultural heritage to get a wider audience across the globe. "Though the standing of the Red Fort cannot be challenged, its inclusion in the World Heritage list will force people to talk more about it. More tourists from across the globe would now be eager to pay a visit to the magnificent monument," an ASI official said. The Red Fort would have been included in the World Heritage Sites list, but Unesco did not want to include a historic monument that housed Indian soldiers at that time. It has been included now that the army has vacated the fort and handed over its management to the ASI.