Sidi Bashir Mosque

Only a central gateway and two minarets survive of the Sidi Bashir Mosque in Ahmedabad, north of Ahmedabad Junction railway station. The rest was destroyed in 1753 in fighting between the Marathas and the Mughal governor Jawan Mard Khan. The mosque is credited either to Sidi Bashir, who was a slave of Sultan Ahmed Shah, or to Malik Sarang, a noble under Mahmud Begada; work is dated from 1452, though the minarets may belong to around 1511.

The three-storey minarets, the tallest in the city, carry carved balconies. Locally they are called the Jhulta Minar, or Shaking Minarets. If one is rocked gently, the other starts to vibrate a few seconds later while the passage between them stays still. Monier Williams recorded the effect in the 19th century, and no one has fully explained it. Climbing inside has been barred since 1981.