Gandhak ki Baoli

Just as you cross the Mehrauli Bus Terminus, you turn left inside a narrow nondescript lane leading to Gandhak ki Baoli, nearly hidden among clusters of buildings, shops and dhabas. 
Baolis were stores of water for people of yore, when there was no system of modern water supply through pipes. Gandhak ki Baoli or the well of sulfur is all of five stories deep and has a circular wall at its southern end. 
Legend says that one day emperor Iltutmish (responsible for completion of the Qutub Minar) visited the sufi saint Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki to pay his obeisance and found him in a disheveled state. On asking why he has not bathed, the saint replied that he could not because he needs a place to do so. On hearing this, Iltutmish immediately ordered for the construction of a well and thus it was completed in record time. 
The well got its name because of the smell of sulfur in its water and was believed to have medicinal properties. Until some years back divers used to jump from its top stories to retrieve coins which the devotees threw into the water. Today the water is nearly non existent and is not even usable.