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The stone steps plunge into the well, disappearing at the point where the water starts. This is a centuries-old monument, of an unusual kind. The one that tries to stay secretive. You cannot see this monument from afar. It doesn’t aspire to touch the sky. It instead believes in a race to the bottom.

It is the baoli.

In a baoli, the inquisitive stone staircase strives to descends towards the source of underground water. The sunken structure burrows a cooling shelter in the earth, rendering the wrathful summertime sky appear remote. Over the course of summer, this page shall visit all the accessible baolis of Delhi.

The ideal destination to launch such an ambitious survey has to be the Ugrasen baoli. Being in Central Delhi’s Hailey Lane, it is the most easily accessible of all the city baolis. It is also the most striking—owing to the Connaught Place high-rises that flank the baoli’s near horizon (see photo). The descending stone edifice, built during the 14th century, is directly juxtaposed with the ascending brick edifices, built during the 20th century. The effect is dramatic, like watching two time zones intersect perpendicularly in real time.

This April afternoon, the staircase in Ugrasen is partially packed with domestic and foreign tourists. The air is thick with a mixed babble of French and Bengali. While every now and then, the baoli’s permanent dwellers, the guttural pigeons, are emerging out noisily from nooks and corners.

Towards the periphery of the baoli, a short flight of staircase is going up to the outlying stone rim of the well. A diver must obviously clamber onto this rim to jump into the water. Indeed, among photographer Raghu Rai’s many black-and-white images of Delhi, one distinguished portrait shows a young man diving into the Ugrasen baoli from this rim. Nobody will risk it today. The step-well usually remains dry, or—as is the case right now—it has too little water for safe landing.

The baoli walls, bordering the staircase, are lined with arched niches. Hundreds of years ago, these niches must have been the hideouts of heat-stricken citizens, who would hibernate in them for a few hours in silence and shade.

The Ugrasen baoli happens to host a separate stone structure on the ground level. It is said to be an unused mosque dating from the same time as the baoli. Part of its stone roof is missing. The gaping void is looking as solemn as the void in the ground beneath, which is the baoli.