Nestled in a corner of the pristine Sunder Nursery, across the road from Humayun’s Tomb in central Delhi, a series of red sandstone ramps gently heads to the grassy ground beneath. They descend into corridors and halls with massive sheesham doorways that summon the grandeur of Fatehpur Sikri’s Buland Darwaza. Inside, await five huge galleries of granite flooring, marble columns, and stone benches. Opening in August, the Humayun Museum lies beneath the soil on which the Mughal identity, which gave a distinctive character and left an indelible mark on India, first began to take shape. “The Humayun Museum will serve as a gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Humayun’s Tomb,” explained Ratish Nanda, the CEO of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (India), which has built the museum. “Each artefact relays and interprets the story of this historic precinct, where 700 years of monumental architecture is surrounded with craft, music, culture and pluralism.” The Humayun Museum is the culmination of 15 years of work by AKTC in partnership with the Archeological Survey of India. Fashioned as a site museum, the subterranean sprawl awakens visitors to the aesthetics of a slice of land that was the preferred burial field for both commoner and king.