Tombs of Hathi and Ghoda (Elephant and Horse Tombs)

The Hathi-Ghoda Tomb (Hathi-Ghorhe da Maqbara) in Sirhind is one of the region’s strangest monuments. Local memory says it was built for animals: the favourite elephant and horse of Emperor Humayun, said to have died in the Battle of Sirhind in 1555. This story comes from folklore recorded by Alexander Cunningham, and nothing confirms who, or what, is actually buried here. No inscription names the occupants, and visitors have noted that the graves bear no writing. The 1555 date comes from the tomb’s early Mughal style, and timeline of the Battle of Sirhind and Humayun's rule, with an octagonal dome carried on squinch arches. The cenotaphs are unusually large. The taller one, said to be the elephant’s, stands almost 6 feet high, and the other, the horse’s, about 4.5 feet. Their size is the main reason the animal tradition has endured. Visitors familiar with Sirhind’s monuments rate its brickwork and jaali (lattice) work among the finest in the town. Whether it honours a pair of war animals, human burials, or something else entirely remains an open question. What lies beneath the cenotaphs is unknown.