Diwan-i-Khas Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad)

This Hall of Private Audiences in the Red Fort was used for bowing and scraping to the emperor. Above the corner arches to the north and south is inscribed in Urdu, 'If there is paradise on the earth – it is this, it is this, it is this'. Nadir Shah looted the legendary jewel-studded Peacock Throne from here in 1739. Bahadur Shah Zafar became the last Mughal emperor here in May 1857, but was exiled by the British seven months later. At the time of research, visitors could no longer enter the Diwan-i-Khas, but could still peer in through the open frontage.