Mirza Ghalib’s Tomb
The grave of Mirza Asadullah Khan ‘Ghalib,’ (1797-1869) is located north of the enclosure of Chaunsath Khamba, close to the Nizamuddin shrine in Nizamuddin West. Mirza Ghalib, as he is popularly known, is considered the Urdu Shakespeare and was the greatest poet of the nineteenth century. He was a great writer of ghazals, the lyrical love poems of Urdu. He was a friend of the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ and was appointed the teacher of Bahadur Shah II. Mirza Ghalib’s grave is covered by a marble structure and is within a small courtyard, which is always locked. The little cemetery has a few more graves set around the grave of the great poet and is located next to the large Ghalib Academy. The Ghalib Academy was established by the government and has an extensive library of Urdu Literature. It also houses a well-maintained museum. The museum has a large collection of rocks, paintings and works of the great poet, who described Delhi as ‘the Soul of the World’.
Visitors can enter the tomb from the lanes of the Nizamuddin village. It is not mandatory to pay any money to the families living just before the tomb but you can still get their good wishes and some relevant information by giving them some baksheesh.
