The minar has survived a series of lightening bolts and earthquakes during the past centuries. After the first lighting strike way back in AD1368 knocking off the top storey and two floors replaced instead, by Firoz Shah Tuglaq, inscriptions indicate that further repairs were done by Sultan Sikander Lodi in 1503. Later in 1803, the cupola on the top was thrown down and the whole pillar was seriously injured by an earthquake. It was repaired by Major R. Smith of the Royal Engineers who restored the Qutub Minar in 1829 replacing the cupola with a Bengal style chhattri. The chhattri was removed in 1848, by the Viceroy Lord Hardinge as it was criticized as not keeping in with the architectural style of the rest of the minar. Now it stands to the left of the entry path and is known as Smith's folly.

Today, this impressively ornate tower has a slight tilt, but otherwise has worn the centuries remarkably well. The staircase inside the tower to the balconies has been closed following an accident in early 1980's when a party of school girls panicked when the lights failed and a stampede led to a number of deaths.




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