Delhi is situated on a roughly triangular area in the plains of Yamuna and has picturesque outcrops of the Aravalli Ridge spread out as an arc in its western sector. The area of the Ridge has oldest geological formations which conditioned the natural environment of Early Man, as reflected in his earliest stone tools. The Yamuna having several palaeo-channels, fostered many ancient cultures. Thus the past of Delhi is no longer confined to the Seven Cities (Eighth being present Delhi) but is pushed back to several millennia as evidenced by the artifacts of Early Stone Age on the Ridge.

After a gap of many thousand years, in the second millennium B.C., the area witnessed settled pattern of life and agriculture as revealed by the Late Harappan remains at Mandoli and Bhorgarh.

Few cities in India could claim the long continuity and status that Delhi has enjoyed through the ages. At the site of Purana Qila lay perhaps Indraprastha, the capital of the Pandavas, heroes of the Mahabharata. The Painted Grey Ware, associated by some scholars with the age of the Mahabharata war, is available in and around Delhi. Continuous occupations from the pre-Mauryan to Early Mughal period (circa fifth century B.C. to the sixteenth century A.D.) have been revealed in the excavations at Purana Qila .

A glorious chapter to Delhi's history was added with the discovery of an inscription of the Maurya emperor Asoka (273-36 B.C.) engraved on a rock of Aravalli outcrop, near Srinivaspuri.

About the eighth century A.D., there existed at the site of the Sultan Ghari's tomb (8 km west of the Qutb Minar) a large temple erected probably by some feudatory of the Pratiharas. In any case, the Tomar Rajputs established themselves in the hills south of Delhi by the tenth century A.D.

The first medieval city of Delhi, believed to have been founded by the Tomars, was called Dhilli or Dhillika, although among the known records the name Dhillika occurs for the first time in the inscription of A.D. 1170 from Bijolia, District Bhilwara which mentions the capture of Delhi by the Chahamanas. The Palam Baoli inscription of A.D. 1276, written in the reign of Ghiyasud-Din Balban, also calls the town Dhilli and the country in which it lies as Hariyanaka. Another inscription dated in A.D. 1328 in the reign of Muhammad Tughluq (A.D. 1324-51), now in the Red Fort Museum, also refers to the city of Dhillika in the Hariyana-country. A less-known inscription dated in A.D. 1326, found in Ladnu in District Didwana, also mentions the city of Dhilli in Haritana-country.

Another name, Yoginipura, occurs as an alternative of Dhilli in the Palam Baoli inscription, which also mentions the village of Palamba, obviously the modern Palam. Both Dhilli and Yoginipura occur frequently in the Jaina Pattavalis. A king by the name of Madanapala is mentioned as ruling over Dhilli or Yoginipura in Samvat 1223 (A.D. 1166). Since the words Madana and Ananga are synonymous in Sanskrit, there is likelihood that the king under reference may be Anangpal, the date given being a mistake. The Jaina literary tradition gains some support from the fact that Delhi was obviously also an important Jaina centre in medieval days, as evidenced by several Jaina sculptures which are found re-used in the Quwwatu'l-Islam mosque. The name Yoginipura is believed to owe its origin to a temple of yoginis (female semi-divine beings), which exists no longer but the memory of which is preserved in the present Jogamaya temple near Mehrauli, which itself is derivable from `Mihirapuri', and suggests that a Sun temple may have also existed here .

Tomars were supplanted by the Chauhan (Chahamana) Rajputs. Several temples, Hindu and Jaina, were erected during the Rajput rule. The Chauhan ruler, Prithviraja was defeated by the Muslims towards the close of the twelfth century A.D., and Delhi thus became the capital, initially of the Pathan Sultans and from A.D. 1526 onwards of the Mughals. During the British period, when the country came under a unified control, the capital was at Kolkata, but it was shifted in A.D. 1911 to Delhi, which continues to be the capital of India.

With such a variegated history, it is not surprising that Delhi should abound in relics and remains of its long chequered past in the form of excavated artifacts as well as monumental remains. It is the mosques, tombs and citadels of the Pathans and the Mughals that constitute the main monumental remains of Delhi. This metropolis has, at present, several exquisite buildings and monuments, e.g., Kotla Feroz Shah with the Asokan Pillar, Jama Masjid, Safdarjung Tomb, Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb and Qutb Minar, the last two being monuments on the World Heritage List. The excavated artifacts, medieval materials, Bahadurshah Zafar's Gallery, arms and armour of the British periods and relics of Swatantrata Sangram are exhibited in Museums at Purana Qila and Lal Qila respectively.

The total number of monuments of National Importance in the National Capital Territory of Delhi under the administrative control of Delhi Circle of the Archaeological Survey of India, as entered into the original list, are 163. Out of this, twelve monuments are not included presently in this inventory as due to rapid urbanization these have lost their antiquarian value and are under the process of deprotection proceedings. In the year 2002, four new protections were notified which include remaining parts of Lal Qila, Salimgarh Fort, City wall of Shahjahanabad and Mazar of Shaikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq. They now appear in the supplement.

Since Delhi has two airports, numerous railway stations/bus terminals, the respective entry in the Inventory is made as Delhi to avoid any confusion. The desirous visitor may choose the airport terminal (I.G. Airport Terminal I or II), nearest railway station (Delhi, New Delhi, Hazrat Nizammuddin, Delhi Cann, or Sarai Rohilla), interstate bus terminals (Kashmiri Gate, Anand Vihar or Sarai Kale Khan) as per his/her convenience after making local enquiry and consulting the map.

The name of the monument/site has been given as per the notification and the same spellings have been maintained in it However, for easy access the name of new locality has been also given along with the old one.

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