New Delhi, June 28: Red Fort today joined the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort on Unesco’s World Heritage List.

The announcement that came from New Zealand coincided with the 150th anniversary of the uprising of 1857.

The fort — once the palace of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, which was completed in 1648 — was the focus of the first war of Independence. Contingents of rebel sepoys headed to Delhi hoping to be led by Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was ensconced there. After the war, it was captured by the British and made the headquarters of the British Indian Army.

This is the third monument from Delhi that has made it to the list — others being Humayun’s Tomb built in 1570 and the Qutb Minar, in 1193. For India, it is the 27th, cultural and natural sites included.

India had sent the proposal to include the Red Fort as a heritage site in 2005. It came up for discussion at this year’s World Heritage Committee meeting, now in Christchurch.

Unesco noted in a statement: “The monument’s significance is further enhanced by the importance of events that happened. Through its fabric, the complex reflects all phases of Indian history from the Mughal period to Independence.”

Shah Jahan had built the fort when he moved his capital from Agra to Shahjahanabad on the banks of the Yamuna. The sprawling complex that is surrounded by red sandstone walls — from which it gets its name — includes marble palaces, pillared halls, gardens and baths.

The imperial private apartments consist of a row of pavilions that sit on a raised platform along the eastern edge of the fort, looking onto the river. The pavilions are connected by a continuous water channel — known as the Nahr-i-Behisht, or the Stream of Paradise — that runs through the centre of each pavilion.

In the Diwan-i-Khas or the hall of private audience that was used for ministerial and court gatherings once sat the Peacock Throne, plundered in 1739 by Persian ruler Nadir Shah. An inscription in Persian reads: “If there is Paradise on the face of the earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.”

The fort has seen several changes since Shah Jahan’s days. His successors added buildings while the British demolished many structures when they occupied the fort and then added some of their own. The Indian Army, which got control of the fort in 1947, used a part of it as a garrison till 2003 when the Archaeological Society of India took over.