We learned from our guidebook that this complex, not far from the Humayun mausoleum, was worth visiting. So, after the visit to that mausoleum, we got transported to it by a motorickshaw.
This is a high place for Muslim worship in present-day India.
Dargah means mausoleum. Nizamuddin (full name: Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya, 1238-1325) is a Sufi saint, belonging to the " Chishti" order. The order originated in present-day Afghanistan and is one of the four main orders of the sect of Sufi mystical "monks". Within the Chishti order, I learned that Nizamuddin is the founder of a particular branch, called precisely "Chishti Nizami".
The surrounding neighborhood was named after him, and also the nearby Hazrat Nizamuddin station, which is today one of the three main railway stations in Delhi.
Here the Nizamuddin shrine stands (which, however, is much later than him; as far as I read it dates back to 1562), together with other buildings, which host other shrines, shops related to his cult, and also a small baoli (stepwell).
To get to the mausoleum, from the spot of Lodhi Road where our motorickshaw left us, we walked a narrow, picturesque and crowded pedestrian street, lined with shops of all kinds. These shops are evidently favored by the continuous influx of shrine worshippers. After passing through an entrance arch, the shops also continue inside, further narrow and winding. Finally, after skirting the baoli, you reach the very crowded area where the shrine stands, under a large, highly decorated marble canopy surmounted by an onion-shaped dome.
No less evocative are other shrines that flank the courtyard where the main one stands.
Behind an offer, we received our tray of rose petals, with which to sprinkle the shrine.
The whole is extremely picturesque. And it certainly would have been even more so, if we had stayed until sunset, when, apparently, the Sufis sing poignant religious hymns. But it was not in our program to dwell so much.
As far as we could understand, after the Great Mosque this is the most evocative Islamic place of worship in Delhi.