Sadak-e-Azam
The great road.
The Grand Trunk Road is one of Asia's oldest highways. In the sixteenth century Sher Shah Suri rebuilt it as the Sadak-e-Azam, the Great Road; the Mughals called it the Badshahi Sadak, the King's Road.
Along it, Sher Shah built sarais — rest-houses where every traveller, rich or poor, was given food, water and shelter. Emperors and caravans used the road. So did merchants, pilgrims and wedding processions heading home.
Our hotel is not a historic building, and we don't pretend to be one. But it stands on that same road, at the fifth kilometre of Delhi Road in Aligarh — and it is built in the tradition of the sarai: a royal welcome, a generous table and room to celebrate.
