By Justice Markandey Katju A few days back I went to the Qutub Minar in Delhi and took the pic given below. justice katju at qutub minar Thereafter I received this email from a certain Mr Gill : ” Sir, I am a great fan of yours and also follow you on Facebook.  I have a great curiosity about how Qutub minar must have been constructed.  It couldn’t have been from inside because you have to maintain fineness and accuracy from out side, and since the diameter goes on decreasing, every time you have to check its accuracy.  You did nothave modern and fine instruments and implements during those times. Since its not plastered, there are no signs of scaffolding. Then how was it constructed ? Was it  not scary doing work from outside at such a great height. And it was a period when you did not have cranes or lifts. Please throw some light on this GS Gill ”. Since I have no knowledge of architecture, I forwarded Mr Gill’s email to my niece’s husband Christian Schimert, who is a German, and is a highly qualified and experienced architect living in Vancouver Canada, asking him whether he could answer Mr Gill’s queries. Christian sent this reply to Mr Gill, copying it to me ( and he has given me permission to mention his name and email id ) “Dear Mr. Gill, We have very good records of how European Cathedrals were built in the 12th and 13th century, which matches the construction period when the Qutb was erected. I do not know too much directly about construction methods of the islamic influenced world at that time period. However, since it was Greek and islamic influenced mathematics and geometry, which enabled the European builders, it can be assumed that some of the construction methods in the islamic world and hence the Mughal Empire were similar too. Back then they did have cranes built from wood, operated with kind of hamster wheels occupied by some poor workers running in them. These were connected to pulley systems. The cranes sat on…