“It was originally built as the Circuit House for British officers in the 1880s and later served as the Viceroy’s residence when the Empire shifted base from Calcutta to Delhi,” says history student and our tour guide for today, Ashutosh Kumar.

Today, all important administrative decisions are taken from this magnificent structure, which once served as the durbar for the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. In 1948, a special convocation was held in the Viceregal Lodge where Lord Mountbatten, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad were awarded a honorary doctorate.

The walk proceeds to the basement where people prod the pagdis (turbans), unceremoniously kept in a room where Bhagat Singh was kept before his execution on March 23, 1931.

The next stop is the Flagstaff Tower, which is perched on the highest part of the Northern Ridge. Somewhere during the one-kilometre walk, someone spots a dusty plaque with a Hindu Rao inscription whose vintage and history is unknown.

The Flagstaff, built in the 14th century by Jehangir as part of the Kush-e-Shikra hunting lodge to provide amenities to his soldiers, offered the British forces a strategic point to attack the Indian sepoys.

Several myths surround the Peer Ghaib structure. Built in 14th century by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, it served as an observatory and was the centre of action during the 1857 siege. Our group gravitates towards another tour guide Tathagata Sarkar, a third year student of history at St Stephen’s, as he reveals the origin of the name — a peer who mysteriously vanished while meditating at the site. It is also widely believed that the descendants of the peer converge at the run-down structure, with its typical slant characteristic of the Tughlaq period, on Thursday evenings to pay homage to the elusive saint.

The last stop of the walk: the Mutiny Memorial built in 1863 in memory of the British soldiers who died in the 1857 Revolt.