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The fort lies along the course of the Jamuna river, that fed the trenches that surround most of the wall.
The Red Fort was the seventh Muslim city in the Delhi site. The Red Fort stands at the eastern edge of Shahjahanabad, and gets its name from the massive wall of red sandstone there at its eight sides. The wall is 1.5miles long, and varies in height from 60ft on the river side to 110ft towards the city.
In the 18th century, looters damaged some sections of the palace. After the Sepoy mutiny of 1857, when the Fort was used as a headquarters, the British army occupied and destroyed many of its pavilions and gardens.
The walls of the fort are smooth, expressed by heavy string-courses along the upper section. They open at two major gates, the Delhi and the Lahore gates. The Lahore Gate is the main entrance; it leads to a long bazaar street, the Chatta Chowk, whose walls are lined with stalls for shops.
 The Chatta Chowk leads to a large open space where it crosses the large north-south street that was at first the division between the fort's military functions, to its west, and the palaces, to its east.
The southern end of this street is the Delhi Gate. on the eastern side of the open space, is the Naqqar Khana, the main gate for the palace.
Beyond this gate, is a courtyard of the Diwan-i-Am, the large pavilion for public imperial audiences. An ornate balcony for the emperor stands at the center of the eastern wall of the Diwan, believed as a copy of the throne of Solomon.
The private apartments lie behind the throne. The apartments consist of a row of pavilions on a raised platform along the eastern edge of the fort, looking out onto the river Jamna. The pavilions are connected by a continuous water channel, known as the Nahr-i-Behisht that runs through the center of each pavilion.
The planning of the palace is based on Islamic images. The palace complex of the Red Fort is counted among the best examples of the Mughal style at its Shah Jahani peak.
To its north lies a large formal garden, which is cut through by two bisecting channels of water. A pavilion stands at either end of the north-south channel, and a third, built in 1842 by the last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, stands at the center of the pool where the two channels meet
The two southernmost structures of the palace are women's quarters: the Mumtaz Mahal and the larger, lavish Rang Mahal, which has been remarked for its deluxe, decorated ceiling and marble pool, fed by the Nahr-i-Behisht. The third pavilion from the south, the Khas Mahal, contains the imperial chambers. These include a suite of bedrooms, prayer rooms, a veranda, and the Mussaman Burj, a tower built against the fortress walls, from which the emperor would show himself to the people in a daily ceremony.
The next pavilion is the Diwan-i-Khas, the decorated hall of private audience, used for court gatherings.
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