On first impressions, DELHI , with its jam-packed streets, tower blocks and temples, forts, mosques and colonial mansions, can be disorienting and fascinating. It certainly takes a while to find your feet, as you attempt to weave a path through buses, trucks, nippy modern cars, mopeds, rickshaws, cows, bullock carts, hand-pulled trolleys and the occasional elephant being ridden along with the flow of traffic. You'll find unlikely juxtapositions are everywhere you look: suit-and-tie businessmen rub shoulders with traditionally dressed orthodox Hindus and Muslims; groups of young Delhi-ites wearing Levis pile into burger-joints, bars and discos; turbaned snake charmers tease hypnotizing moans out of curved pipes; pundits pontificate while sadhus smoke their chillums ; and ragged beggars clutching dusty children plead for a little help towards a meal.

The daunting scale of Delhi becomes more manageable as you start to appreciate that geographically as well as historically it consists of several distinct cities - if anything, more than the Seven Cities of tradition. The hub of the metropolis is Central New Delhi , an orderly plan of wide roads lined with sturdy colonial buildings which was established soon after the imperial capital of British India moved here in 1911. Many of the city's hotels are here, concentrated amid the columned facades of Connaught Place , and just north of the parliamentary buildings, the architectural jewels in the Imperial crown. Old Delhi , Shah Jahan's seventeenth-century capital ( Shahjahanabad ), lies 2km or so further north. This is Delhi at its most quintessentially Indian, where the traditional lifestyle of its predominantly Muslim population has changed little over two hundred years. A visit to Old Delhi's mighty Red Fort and Jami Masjid , India's largest mosque, is a must, and should be combined with a stroll through the old city's bazaars , a warren of clustered houses, buzzing with commotion, and infused with aromatic smells drifting from open-fronted restaurants, spice shops and temples.

The other five of Delhi's ex-capitals, further south, are today all but deserted, standing as impressive reminders of long-vanished dynasties. Among them you'll find the towering free-standing column erected by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, the Qutb Minar (twelfth century), that marks the first capital, Dhillika , and that signalled the development of the city that visitors see today. Walls and dilapidated pillars survive from the fourteenth-century city of Tughluqabad , and Purana Qila , the sixth capital. Interspersed between these historic ruins are the grand tombs of Delhi's former rulers, plus a plethora of Hindu temples, and domed mosques, introduced by the Muslims, which dramatically changed the conventional mould of Indian cities. Perhaps the finest expressions of the Moghuls' architectural genius were the grand charbagh (quartered garden) mausoleums of Humayun's Tomb , and, most famously, the Taj Mahal in Agra. The major monument of the great Moghul period is Lal Qila , the "Red Fort" , in Old Delhi.

As befits a national capital, Delhi, with its many museums and art treasures, cultural performances and crafts, provides a showcase of the country's diverse heritage. Shops trade in goods from every corner of India, and with a little legwork you can find anything from Tibetan carpets, antiques, and jewellery to modern art and designer clothes. After years of economic isolation caused by India's draconian post-Independence trading laws, Delhi is enjoying a tremendous economic boom . With plenty of spending money and a new sense of confidence among the wealthier classes, the city can now boast a great nightlife , with designer bars, chic cafA©s and good clubs. Its auditoria host a wide range of national music and dance events, drawing on the richness of India's great classical traditions. The film and theatre scenes are very dynamic with a choice of plays in English every week, and smart new cinemas that show Bollywood and Hollywood movies to a film-hungry audience.