QILA RAI PITHORA

In 1060, Anangpal Tomar (of the Tomar Rajputs from Delhi and Haryana) built the fortress of Lal Kot. It was the first city to be built in present-day Delhi and surrounded much of the later built Qutub Complex. An iron pillar, which was constructed in the Gupta Age, was probably transported to the centre of Lal Kot too (although some historians believe that it was transported later by the Muslim rulers).

In the late 12th Century, Prithviraj III (of the Chauhan Rajputs from Rajasthan) conquered it and built a (bigger) city around Lal Kot. The fortified complex around this was named Qila Rai Pithora (see the helpful image below).

The ruins of this fort surrounded the first city of the 7 cities of Delhi (Qila Rai Pithora, Siri, Tughlaqabad, Firozabad, Shergarh, Shahjahanabad and finally modern day New Delhi).